The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have said they intend to keep their Montecito estate as they move the family to Britain this month. Brokers in the Santa Barbara luxury market are not convinced, and the arithmetic on the house explains why.
A source in the local market told the New York Post there “have been rumblings” that the couple will sell, adding that “every broker wants that listing.” Jason Streatfeild, a Douglas Elliman broker covering Santa Barbara and Montecito, said a property of this profile would not necessarily surface publicly first. “Many times properties like this will trade off market with an NDA signed and all of the terms sealed until the property records at the county,” he said.
“It’s very possible that they would be listing it, but I have a strong feeling that it’s already being discussed and shown,” Streatfeild said.
What the house costs to keep
Santa Barbara County records show the couple’s company, Rockbridge LLC, bought the 7.38-acre estate for $14.65 million on June 9, 2020. Three days later it took out a $9.52 million loan from City National Bank — an adjustable-rate mortgage that starts at 2.49 percent and can climb as high as 7.49 percent when it resets in July 2030.
With no refinance on the books, the Post calculated that the loan alone runs somewhere between $40,000 and $43,000 a month on a standard 30-year term, or north of $480,000 a year before taxes, insurance or grounds staff.
The tax bill has climbed every year the Sussexes have owned the house, from $138,629 in 2021-22 to $141,645, then $144,229, then $146,930, and $149,668 this year on an assessed value of $14.38 million — roughly $721,000 in property taxes over five years. Add insurance, groundskeeping across nearly eight acres and a security detail, and the fixed annual cost of the property clears well past $600,000.
What it might fetch
Streatfeild said he has been asked repeatedly what the estate would bring. “It’s a beautiful ocean view estate on seven acres with about 18,000 square feet. Nine bedrooms and 17 bathrooms, with the pool, tennis court, and beautiful grounds,” he said.
“In Montecito, there’s been three sales this year above $50 million,” he added. “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.” For comparison, he pointed to Adam Levine’s 13,000-square-foot property on three acres, which sold for $60 million.
The timing of the original purchase looks fortunate in hindsight. “When they purchased it for $14.7 million in 2020, it had been on the market for five years and was originally listed for $34.5 million in 2015,” Streatfeild said. “The demand for Montecito has exploded and the average sales price is just about doubled since they purchased the property.” Zillow currently values the home at $30.5 million and Redfin at $55.8 million; on any of those numbers, a sale would return a substantial profit.
A move, and a thinner income
The couple are relocating to the UK this month with Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, ending a six-year run in California that began when they stepped back from royal duties in 2020. The children are due to start school in Britain in September, and the location of the family’s new private residence is being kept quiet. King Charles was informed of the move over the weekend.
They have said they will hold on to both the Montecito estate and a vacation property in Portugal. That pledge sits against a narrowing commercial picture: their Netflix documentary “Cookie Queens” opened to between $328,000 and $354,000, trailing a compilation of cat videos playing in a third as many theaters, and the couple’s five-year, $100 million Netflix deal wound down without a full renewal, replaced by a smaller first-look arrangement. Meghan’s As Ever lifestyle brand has its own problem: a website glitch in January reportedly exposed roughly 650,000 unsold units in inventory, with insiders estimating a potential write-off of about $5 million on unsold jam alone once the stock passes its sell-by date.
“I cannot imagine ever wanting to let go of this beautiful piece of property, but hanging onto it comes at a steep cost, so they might have to,” the market source said. “It likely will be a few months before they list, or maybe they will give the UK a year first to see how that plays out. But if they do decide to plant roots in the UK, I don’t see a world where they will keep this home.”
Representatives for the Sussexes did not respond to a request for comment.
Reporting in this story is based on Santa Barbara County records, broker interviews and calculations first published by the New York Post. The photographs are stock file images, not photographs of the property described.
