Sorry, I'd missed a couple of posts as I hadn't refreshed before replying to @BasiliskStare.
Sandringham is personally owned by the monarch, so not under the remit of the Crown Estate or Royal Household. I'm not clear if Marsh Farm was particularly run down or just needed modernising / security.
So the report apparently shows that Beatrice and Eugenie’s rent (paid by Charles from Duchy of Lancaster) is around 65% of going market rent because of the security cordon and vetting. Does that apply to everyone. Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas rent one of the apartments in St. James where Beatrice has an apartment. Does Catherine Zeta Jones and all the other private renters also get the discount?
@wordler, the Royal Household residential agreements are summarised in sections 3.8 - 3.9, alongside Figure 11.
Apart from all the special categories (like staff, pensioners, etc) there are 2 groups of privately rented accommodation. G
Group 1 - 32 properties - is outside the security cordon. Anyone renting one of these pays full market rate.
Group 2 - 12 properties (including the 3 under discussion used by B, E and the Michaels) - inside the security cordon. Anyone renting one of thesae pays adjusted rate of 60% market rates. Typically Household staff (not primary residence) or senior UK/Commonwealth government official who has household security clearance.
Private renters would therefore be renting properties in Group 1, outside the security cordon.
Re Forest Lodge. From what was published last year and what I can find online, there was quite a lot of work done in 2001, but no significant work since then. There seems to have been one fairly longterm tenant who died in 2019, who was there from at least 2008 (may have been before that). The next tenant then left early 2025, when it became available for the Wales family.
It's probably not surprising that there was maintenance work that needed done after 20 years (says she, who has just been having electrical work done).