Princess Kate's homes before and after royal life –including Chelsea girl pad and pastel cottage

Growing up, Kate lived in a £1.5 million property named Oak Acre, located in Bucklebury village. Kate's parents Michael and Carole Middleton moved into the large, detached house with their three children when she was age 13.

The red brick exterior, Georgian-style windows and pointed roofs ensure it is in keeping with the area's aesthetic. The exterior has manicured lawns, submerged flower beds and an abundance of trees. It's also set within one-and-a-half acres of beautiful grounds.

Princess Kate and both of her younger siblings Pippa and James Middleton attended Marlborough College, a co-ed boarding school in Wiltshire, as teenagers. It currently costs £61,809 a year to board at the school. The website explains: "The school fee includes tuition, food, lodging, the cost of most co-curricular and games activities, and the majority of educational materials."

In September 2001, Kate enrolled at the University of St Andrews following a gap year in Italy. She spent her first year living in St Salvator's Hall, often referred to by students as "Sallies", which was split into male and female quarters. It was here that Kate met Prince William, and the pair eventually went on to live together with mutual friends at an off-campus apartment in the middle of town.

Prior to moving in with Prince William, Kate lived with her younger sister Pippa Middleton in an apartment on Old Church Street, Chelsea. The home is formed of three storeys with three bedrooms (one master suite with an en-suite), two bathrooms, a large living room, dining room, kitchen and a guest bathroom. The bedrooms were all situated on the very top floor and it sold for £1.88million in September 2019.

The Middletons bought this stunning family home in 2012. It sits on an 18 acre estate and has seven bedrooms, a tennis court and swimming pool, and served as the location for Pippa Middleton and James Matthews' wedding reception in May 2017. William and Kate also stayed here for several months following the birth of Prince George in 2013, and even shared their first official family portrait from the garden of the sprawling estate.

The idyllic property even has its own bee hives. James Middleton revealed all, writing for the Daily Mail in 2020: "I've been a passionate advocate of these ingenious, industrious little creatures since I became a beekeeper myself nearly a decade ago, having fallen for them as a child. I now have almost half a million bees in eight hives in a meadow at our family home, Bucklebury Manor in Berkshire."

Prince William and Kate moved to Anglesey in 2011, while he served there as an RAF Valley search and rescue pilot. The newlyweds rented this four-bedroom farmhouse on Bodorgan Home Farm for £750 per month from Lord and Lady Meyrick. It had private beach access and beautiful views of Newborough Forest and Prince William once described it as an "immensely special place".

However, Kate has spoken out about her feelings of "isolation" when there. During a visit to a children's centre in Cardiff in 2020, the royal said: "I was chatting to some of the mums, I had just had George and William was still working with search and rescue, so we came up here when George was a tiny, tiny little baby, in the middle of Anglesey. "It was so isolated, so cut off, I didn't have my family around me, he was doing night shifts, so if only I'd had a centre like this at a certain time."

The late Queen Elizabeth II gifted Prince William and Kate the beautiful Anmer Hall, located on the Sandringham Estate, in 2013. The couple renovated the property before moving in with their children Prince George and Princess Charlotte in 2015. 

It's a place close to the couple's hearts and they like to spend as much time here as possible. Their love for it translates into how often we see family portraits and video clips all taken when they are staying here. In my five years writing about royal homes, this is the one I've seen the Wales family in the most. Case in point: Princess Kate's health update post chemotherapy with intimate family videos.

When the couple first wed, they resided together inside Nottingham Cottage on Kensington Palace grounds and they remained there until they upgraded to Apartment 1A inside the palace. William's brother, Prince Harry later lived here too with Meghan Markle and in their Netflix docuseries, they highlighted its modest size. 

In 2014, Prince William and Kate moved into Apartment 1A inside Kensington Palace. Hearing the term 'apartment' you'd be forgiven for thinking this home is small but despite it's name, the residence is anything but small - in fact, it is a 20-room, ultra-grand residence. Today, they still use this as their city base, when work requires them to be in London, but for the main bulk of life, they are no longer living in the "goldfish bowl" of London.

The Prince and Princess of Wales left London full-time in 2022, for a quieter life for their three children.

Adelaide Cottage is a pink-fronted home that underwent a full refurbishment in 2015, and it is thought to boast a beautiful garden, a cosy study, and a master bedroom formerly decorated with golden dolphins and a ceiling rope recycled from a 19th-century royal yacht.

The royals moved into Forest Lodge in November 2025 after signing a 20-year lease on the property. The property is located within the Great Windsor Park and with its eight bedrooms, gives them a little more space than their former cottage. 

It seems the family have found their "forever home" and taking out a long lease only cements this further. It has also been reported that Prince William will choose to stay living here instead of Buckingham Palace when he becomes monarch.