King Charles and Queen Camilla, then Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, outside Llwynywermod in 2009. Photo / Getty Images
King Charles and Queen Camilla, then Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, outside Llwynywermod in 2009. Photo / Getty Images
King Charles has given up his home in Wales as he begins the process of trimming the costs of his multiple residences, The Telegraph can disclose.
His Majesty bought Llwynywermod in 2007 via the Duchy of Cornwall, paying £1.2 million (NZ$2.4m) for the farmhouse near Llandovery in Carmarthenshire.
When he was Prince of Wales he used it as his base during regular visits to the nation, but after the title passed to his son, Prince William, he will no longer spend as much time in the region.
Royal sources said the King remained “passionate” about Wales but had decided to give up the property because it was “unlikely” he would be able to use it in the same way as before.
With the Coronation out of the way, the King and his aides have turned their attention to what to do with the various homes owned by or used by the King, which include Highgrove, Birkhall, Clarence House, Sandringham and Balmoral, as well as official residences such as Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.
The King notified Duchy he would be giving up the lease, which is due to expire later in the summer. Photo / Getty Images
One royal source said it was “an issue that needs to be addressed”, and that discussions are under way about widening public access to some of the properties to help make them pay their way.
Since the Duchy of Cornwall was passed to Prince William, the King has been paying rent on Llwynywermod, which sits on a 192-acre (77ha) estate.
Buckingham Palace confirmed that the King had given notice to the Duchy earlier this year that he would be giving up the lease, which is due to expire later in the summer.
Other properties on the estate are available as holiday rentals when the King is not in residence, and it is likely that Llwynywermod will be let out commercially, either for holidays or on a long-term lease.
A spokesman for the Prince of Wales said he had no plans to establish his own home in Wales, preferring to stay in hotels to help out the local economy wherever he happened to be.
The holiday cottages on the Llwynywermod estate cost between £550 and £1200 per week depending on the season, meaning the commercial rate to rent the King’s larger property on a long-term lease would be around £2000 per month.
In 2021 the King told BBC Radio 4 that he had bought Llwynywermod “rather 40 years too late, probably” because he had spent much of his life having to stay with friends or borrow other people’s homes when he was in Wales and that Llwynywermod had been “a Godsend”.
He said at the time: “I come whenever I can…I’ve always felt that it’s an important part of holding this particular title.” Finding the house, he said, was “a wonderful opportunity, at last, to have somewhere in Wales”.
In all, the King routinely spends time at a dozen residences, including his holiday home in Romania, of which three - Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh - are official residences.
His current London base is Clarence House, where he will remain until restoration work on Buckingham Palace is completed in 2027. He rents Highgrove in Gloucestershire from the Duchy of Cornwall, owns Balmoral, Birkhall and Sandringham, and stays each year at Dumfries House and the Castle of Mey in Scotland, which are owned by his Prince’s Foundation charity.
The Queen owns Ray Mill in Wiltshire, where she often spends weekends.
Discussions are already taking place about giving the paying public greater access to Balmoral and Buckingham Palace to help cover their costs, and the King is also making his various residences more energy efficient to reduce the long-term costs of their upkeep.
Meanwhile, the King was been photographed on Saturday walking in Valea Zalanului, a hamlet 240km north of Bucharest in Romania.
