King Charles renting out Edinburgh property given to mother in role as queen

Profit from building treated for decades as state-owned adds to questions over palace’s gifts policy

An elegant Edinburgh property that was given to Queen Elizabeth II in her role as sovereign, and for more than 40 years was managed by the UK government, is being privately rented out by the king for a profit.

The revelation sheds light on the opaque nature of royal wealth, where public and private ownership is often hard to disentangle. It adds to mounting questions around Buckingham Palace’s policy on gifts, which is supposed to prevent official gifts from being treated as private property.