The British Royal Family may very well be the most talked about, most followed, and flat out fawned over group of people in the U.K.—except for maybe Harry Potter. We know almost everything about them: what they wear, how much it costs; who they date; their new baby's astrological sign (he's a Cancer, by the way), and we certainly know where they live. In fact, you'd be hard pressed not to know where to find the royal home, as Buckingham Palace is one of the largest in the world. It's kind of hard to miss.
Just like all other things to do with this most beloved family, there is but one question on the public's mind (Movoto Real Estate's mind included): How much is this palace worth? According to our research, if Buckingham Palace were put on the market today, it would cost £1,491,872,400—that's $2,476,508,184.
This is the equivalent of 9,172 average American homes, or to put that into a different perspective for you, 5,985 of Kate Middleton's wedding dress. Yes, you read that correctly. Kate Middleton's £250,000 wedding dress was over 1.5 times more expensive than the average American home in 2013.
But enough gossip about who paid how much for what. Keep on reading to find out how we arrived at this price—and just how many of Kate Middleton's $50,000 engagement rings it would take to pay for it.
How We Did It
Here at Movoto Real Estate, we have evaluated the likes of many a political leader's homes—we have seen the White House, the Australian Prime Minister's home, and even Hyrule Castle; but even compared to Zelda's pad, Buckingham Palace was, quite literally, a massive undertaking. Luckily, the three same steadfast rules still applied. We just needed:
- The location
- The size
- Comparable properties
Of course, finding the location and the size were pretty simple, as they are both well documented; but when it came to finding similar homes, let's just say it was harder than Kate and William picking out a wedding cake (one slice of which sold in auction for $4,160!).
More on money in a moment; for now, let's learn a bit about the location.
You Know Where It Is
Seeing as most U.K. residents know the name, date, and birth time of William and Kate's new baby, i.e., the future King of England, I would be very surprised if you don't already know the location of the little tyke's historic family home, Buckingham Palace. In case you don't, though, it is located in London, England; specifically in the City of Westminster.
What you may not know, however, is that Buckingham Palace didn't actually become the official royal palace of the British monarch until the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837. In fact, it wasn't always even a palace at all. It was originally known as Buckingham House. This much more modest residence, built in 1705, was later bought by George III in 1761 for a whopping £21,000 ($34,923). During the 19th and 20th centuries, Buckingham (now) Palace, was enlarged, redesigned, and all around revamped, making it the colossal property that we know today.
So we've got the location down; but just how big is it?
Just How Big Is Colossal?
According to the British government, Buckingham Palace is... well, just insanely huge, is what. It is 108 meters long across the front, 120 meters deep, and 24 meters high. From the basement to the roof, the palace is 77,000 square meters, or 828,818 square feet, making it the seventh largest palace in the world.
To put this into perspective for you, that's about 15 times larger than the White House in the U.S., and perhaps more importantly, over twice the size of that other famous Brit's temporary home, Hogwarts Castle.
I know what you're thinking: Why in the world would anyone need so much space? What would you do with it? Well, according to the British Monarchy's website, quite a lot. This 775 room home includes 19 State rooms for business, 52 Royal and guest bedrooms for hosting, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices, and 78 bathrooms. It also has a cinema, swimming pool, 40 acres of land, a helipad, and, of course, its very own post office.
Which is all well and good for those lucky few who get to visit, or even better, live there; but all of these amenities certainly made finding any comparable properties in the area a bit of a challenge.
What's Like Buckingham Palace?
There are lots of places like Buckingham Palace—there's the Royal Palace of Madrid; there's the Forbidden City in Beijing; there's the Palace of Versailles. In order to find the price per square meter of Buckingham Palace, though, I needed something similar in the area.
The closest I came to that was Windsor Castle, also located in the U.K. (specifically in Windsor Berkshire). At 44,999 square meters, this other home of the royal family was recently valued at £180 million. That's £4,000, or $6,634, per square meter.
But I wanted to get this evaluation right on the money, literally, and since London is one of the world's most expensive cities in terms of luxury real estate, I knew I needed to see some properties in this city specifically. After checking out eight such beauties, I came up with an average price per square meter of £19,375 per square meter (£1,800 or $2,988 per square foot).
Worth Way More Than A Wedding Dress
Like I said earlier, this house fit for a duchess is worth way more than her wedding dress. At 77,000 square feet and with a price of £19,375 per square meter, Buckingham Palace would cost a grand total of £1,491,872,400 or $2,476,508,184, were it put on the market today.
As promised, that's about 49,530 of Kate Middleton's engagement rings.
