Sarah Ferguson once sold £1.5M gift to Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie from Queen Elizabeth II

Princess Beatrice is the late Queen Elizabeth’s fifth grandchild and Princess Eugenie is her sixth from her son, Prince Andrew. Queen Elizabeth was known for her expensive and lavish gifts to her grandchildren and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie was no exception.

As reported by Express, Queen Elizabeth gifted a home to Beatrice and Eugenie in 1997 when they were 9 and 7 for when they were older. It is interesting to note that Queen Elizabeth had gifted this home to both girls, at such a young age, while Prince William and Prince Harry got separate homes upon their wedding day.

But in a surprise event, Sarah Ferguson - Beatrice and Eugenie’s mother - sold the home.

Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie were gifted a lavish home

In 1997, Queen Elizabeth gifted her granddaughters Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie. The home is the Grade II-listed Birch Hall in Surrey. According to Daily Mail, the home has 7 bedrooms, an outdoor pool and a tennis court. It also has a two-bedroom cottage on the 5-acre grounds for staff.

Sarah Ferguson decided not to move into the Georgian mansion as she wasn’t able to afford the upkeep of the mansion. After owning the property for 2 years, Fergie decided to put the mansion up for sale.

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Sarah Ferguson sold Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie’s gift

The home was gifted to the Princesses of York a year after their parents, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, divorced, which would explain why Fergie was unable to afford the upkeep. She preferred to reside in her former marital home Sunninghill Park, which is six miles away near Ascot.

Fergie sold the home for £1.5 million in 1999 and put the money into a trust fund for Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie.

The new owners renovated the home and added a media and games room, an orangery as well as a gym, as per Daily Mail.

The new owners have now decided to resell the home for a massive £4.2 million. According to Andrew Russell, from estate agents Strutt & Parker, the reason for the massive price increase is due to the few homes left of this style:

It is probably one of the very best of north Surrey's village houses, there's not many that come on the market.

You get that sort of village community but it's a proper country house with five acres of grounds.

Sources used:

Daily Mail: ‘Fit for a princess! Grade II-listed Surrey manor house bought by the Queen for Fergie, Eugenie and Beatrice goes on sale with a VERY regal £4.2million price tag’

Express: ‘Queen Elizabeth's lavish gift to Princess Beatrice was sold on by Fergie over money fears’