Prince Harry and Meghan Markle say they plan to keep their Montecito mansion after relocating to Britain, but real estate sources and county records tell a different story, one driven by more than $650,000 a year in fixed ownership costs.
The couple moved to their seven-acre California estate six years ago after stepping back from royal duties. Now, with their children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, set to start school in Britain this September, the Sussexes are packing up and heading across the Atlantic. King Charles was informed of the move over the weekend, and the family's new UK address has been kept under wraps.
But a source in the Santa Barbara luxury real estate market told the New York Post there "have been rumblings" the couple will sell the property, and that "every broker wants that listing." The public line from the Sussexes is that they intend to hold onto both the Montecito home and a vacation property in Portugal. The math behind the Montecito estate, though, makes that claim hard to square with the couple's shrinking income streams.
Santa Barbara County records paint a clear picture. Rockbridge LLC, the Sussexes' company, purchased the estate on June 9, 2020, for $14.65 million. Three days later, the company took out a $9.52 million adjustable-rate mortgage from City National Bank at a starting interest rate of 2.49 percent, with a ceiling of 7.49 percent. That rate resets in July 2030. No refinance appears on the books.
The Post calculated monthly mortgage payments between $40,000 and $43,000 on a standard 30-year term, north of $480,000 a year. Stack the 2025 property tax bill of $149,668 on top, and the couple clears $600,000 annually in mortgage and tax alone. Add insurance, groundskeeping, and security, and the Post estimates the fixed annual cost likely exceeds $650,000.
California's Proposition 13, the state law that caps annual property tax assessment increases, has kept the assessed value at $14.38 million, well below the estate's current market value. Even so, the Sussexes have paid roughly $721,000 in cumulative property taxes over five years, climbing from $138,629 in 2021, 2022 to $149,668 in 2025.
That is a lot of money to spend on a house you do not live in.
Jason Streatfeild, a Douglas Elliman broker who covers the Santa Barbara and Montecito market, told the Post he has fielded constant questions about what the property would fetch. His assessment was blunt.
"In Montecito, there's been three sales this year above $50 million. So I would expect a home like this to be listed in the range of $75 million. And I would expect it to sell somewhere between $65 and $55 million based on what it has to offer in its location."
Streatfeild noted that when the Sussexes bought the estate in 2020, it had already sat on the market for five years after being listed at $34.5 million in 2015. Since then, Montecito's luxury market has transformed. Average sales prices have roughly doubled, and comparable properties have moved at eye-popping numbers. Streatfeild pointed to Adam Levine's property, which sold for $60 million, a 13,000-square-foot home on three acres. The Sussex estate runs approximately 18,000 square feet on more than seven acres, with nine bedrooms, 17 bathrooms, a pool, a tennis court, and ocean views.
If the couple does sell, the transaction may never hit a public listing. Streatfeild speculated that a deal could happen quietly.
"Many times properties like this will trade off market with a nondisclosure agreement signed and all of the terms sealed until the property records at the county."
He went further, saying he has "a strong feeling that it's already being discussed and shown." The unnamed real estate source offered a more cautious timeline, suggesting the couple might give Britain a year before listing, but added flatly that if they plant roots in the UK, "I don't see a world where they will keep this home."
Holding an empty mansion at $650,000-plus a year might be manageable if the money were flowing. It isn't. The Sussexes' five-year, $100 million Netflix production deal wound down without a full renewal and was replaced by a smaller first-look arrangement whose terms have not been disclosed. One Netflix insider told Variety that "the mood in the building is 'We're done'" with the couple.
The content output has been meager relative to the investment. The Washington Examiner reported that across nearly $200 million in combined deals with Spotify, Netflix, and Penguin Random House, the couple produced fewer than 18 hours of total video and audio content over three years. Spotify dropped its $20 million deal with the Sussexes after they failed to meet productivity benchmarks. The frustration inside Spotify was captured by the company's head of podcast innovation and monetization, Bill Simmons, who called the couple "f***ing grifters."
The Netflix relationship has not collapsed entirely. Fox News reported that Harry and Meghan attended a Netflix event at CEO Ted Sarandos's Montecito home and still have an active production deal with several unannounced projects in the pipeline, including a scripted polo series. But Netflix divested from Markle's "As Ever" lifestyle brand, and the couple's theatrical output has landed with a thud. Their Netflix documentary "Cookie Queens" opened to between $328,000 and $354,000 at the box office, trailing "CatVideoFest 2026," a compilation of cat videos that played in a third as many theaters.
Markle's As Ever brand carries its own financial weight. A website glitch in January revealed approximately 650,000 unsold units in inventory. Insiders estimated the potential write-off on unsold jam alone at roughly $5 million.
And then there is the legal bill. Harry lost a case against a British newspaper company and faces a potential payout described as an eight-figure sum. That legal and financial fallout adds another drain on resources that were already stretched thin.
The Sussexes have publicly insisted they will keep both the Montecito estate and their Portugal vacation property. Their representatives did not respond to the Post's request for comment. But the gap between the public posture and the financial reality is wide enough for a real estate broker to drive a listing through.
The couple bought the property for $14.65 million in a depressed market. If Streatfeild's estimates hold, they could sell for four to five times what they paid. That windfall would cover years of accumulated costs and provide a financial cushion at a moment when their media empire has delivered far less than promised.
Their return to Britain after six years has drawn mixed reactions on both sides of the Atlantic. The move itself raises practical questions about whether maintaining a $650,000-a-year property across an ocean makes any financial sense for a couple whose income has contracted sharply.
Harry and Meghan's complicated relationship with the royal family adds another layer of uncertainty. Whether the UK move leads to a lasting reconciliation or a fresh round of public friction will shape how long the couple stays, and whether the Montecito estate ever sees its owners again.
The real estate source put it simply: hanging onto the property "comes at a steep cost, so they might have to" let it go. That is not speculation. That is arithmetic.
Six years in California, hundreds of millions in deals that underdelivered, and a mansion bleeding cash. The Sussexes built a brand on leaving, and now the bill for staying has come due.
