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The Queen is known for spoiling her nearest and dearest, treating both Prince William and Prince Harry to beautiful houses on their wedding days.
But it’s not just the senior members of the family who are offered some pretty impressive property, and the Monarch once bought her younger grandchildren Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie their home.
Back in 1997 she splashed out a huge sum for Birch Hall, a seven-bedroom Georgian mansion in Surrey, which she gave to the young royals – who were seven and nine at the time.
However, Beatrice and Eugenie never moved in and it sat empty for two years.
The stunning house boasts a tennis court, swimming pool and a separate two-bedroom house on the five acre site, so it sounds like it would have been the perfect home for the princesses and their mum Sarah Ferguson.
But Fergie reportedly refused to move in, saying she couldn’t afford the huge running and upkeep costs, reports the Mail.
So two years after the Queen bought it, it was sold for an £1.5million with estate agents saying the sale was “due to a change of circumstance”.
It was reported that the cash was put into a trust for the sisters to access when they were older.
But had they chosen to keep it and sold it themselves, they could have made a lot of cash as the value increased drastically in the following years.
In 2016 it was sold again for a staggering £4.2million.
Speaking at the time of the second sale, Andrew Russell, from estate agents Strutt & Parker, told the Mail: “It is probably one of the very best of north Surrey’s village houses, there’s not many that come on the market.
“The house itself is a very attractive and imposing-looking property. Some of the rooms are really quite dramatic, with high ceilings and full floor to ceiling sash windows.
“Every summer the owners have opened up the gardens for a charity event with picnics and a live band, so the house is quite prominent in the village.
“The owners bought it from the trustees acting for the Queen in 1999. The trustees bought it in 1997 for the princesses and I imagine it was chosen because it’s a pretty house in a popular village and the gardens are a real draw, it’s more like parkland. But they never moved in.”
Beatrice married her boyfriend Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi in a secret lockdown wedding in Windsor last month, to the joy of royal fans across the UK.
The Queen and Prince Philip were among the small group of guests who were allowed to attend under the Covid 30-guest limit restrictions.
The royal family have shared five official photos from the occasion, which was kept completely secret until after the celebrations.
The bride wore a stunning white dress which belonged to her proud grandmother the Queen.
