With Queen Elizabeth II Out, Real Estate Agent Lists Buckingham Palace for Sale on Website
Buckingham Palace has been the residence of a few kings and queens over the years. It’s also the place Queen Elizabeth II has called home since she was a child and where she raised her four children. But because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the monarch was forced to leave the palace several months ago and likely won’t return to her London base.
Since then, there have been many questions about what the fate of the palace will be since Prince Charles has already indicated that he won’t live there when he’s king. Now, the royal residence has shown up on a real estate website where an agent listed it for an eye-popping price.
Is Buckingham Palace for sale?
Even though the queen hasn’t been back at Buckingham Palace since March, no one expected to see the famed palace pop up on the real estate market. That’s why many were stunned when the online U.K. real estate agent Emoov listed the property on its site.
However, this was just a joke as the website explained that the monarch’s London home isn’t actually up for sale.
“Emoov is delighted to bring to the market a house that is literally fit for royalty. OK, so not really,” the description reads. “But it’s OK to imagine living in the queen’s quarters, is[n’t] it?”
How much the site valued the palace at
Buckingham Palace is massive. It boasts 775 rooms including 19 Staterooms, 240 bedrooms, 92 offices, and 78 bathrooms. Emoov decided to calculate how much it would go for on the real estate market.
Per FR24 News, the site states that “by calculating the cost per square meter, we estimate that the overall floor plan for Buckingham Palace is approximately 77,000 m2 (828,000 square feet), which brings the cost per square meter to £64,831 ($83,680.29). That’s almost 5,000% more than the average price per square meter in central London, which is £11,523 ($14,871.93).”
That brings the total cost of the palace to more than $6 billion.
The palace is currently being renovated
The palace is in the midst of a major renovation project that costs more than $475 million to repair the aging infrastructure.
“The palace’s electrical cabling, plumbing, and heating have not been updated since the 1950s,” said Sir Michael Stevens, who holds the position of keeper of the privy purse.
He added, “The building’s infrastructure is now in urgent need of an overhaul to avoid the very real danger of catastrophic failure leading to fire or flood, and incalculable damage to the building and priceless works of art in the royal collection.”
Over the past few months, some people have reported seeing a few of Buckingham Palace’s windows boarded up, which is a sign of the renovations taking place in specific parts of the building. The project was previously put on hold amid the pandemic but has now resumed.
