The Royal House of Windsor owns a collection of some of the finest historic properties in Britain. From Buckingham Palace in central London to Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands of Aberdeenshire, their castles, palaces and stately homes never cease to impress visitors to British shores.
Royal property is divided into two types: the occupied Royal residences and the private estates.
Occupied Royal Residences
Occupied Royal residences are owned by the state and held in trust for use by future generations. They're used by The Queen as Sovereign whilst fulfilling her role as Head of State and serve many purposes including State and official events.
Each year The Queen is hostess to approximately 80,000 guests at events including receptions, garden parties and Investitures, all of which are held at occupied Royal residences.
The palaces are also used for ceremonial entertaining whenever overseas diplomats and foreign ambassadors visit the United Kingdom. State banquets and audiences are also held regularly.
Occupied Royal residences attract approximately 1.7 million visitors yearly with Buckingham Palace, unsurprisingly, being the most popular Royal residence even though visits to the state rooms are restricted to periods when they're not being used in any official capacity.
Private Estates
Private estates are palaces, castles and stately homes that have been built, bought or otherwise acquired by previous generations of the Royal family and are now owned by The Queen. Past monarchs owned far more properties than Queen Elizabeth as most private estates having disappeared over the years.
Many of those in use today are places of relaxation for the Royal family when spending time away from their official duties.
A Brief History Lesson
One question that's often asked is why the Royal family has access to so many homes. Most of us, after all, manage perfectly well with just one.
To explain this, we need to look back at the way the monarchy existed in the past.
Until the middle ages, the king would regularly move around the country thus necessitating the availability of suitable properties in different areas. Some were used to rule from whilst others were used as homes for the king's family. Eventually the monarchy centralized government in London and many of the original old castles and palaces fell into disrepair.
Although it appears that today's Royal family has many homes available to use, what's left today is in fact nothing but a handful of what former king's and queen's enjoyed. Those that are left are heritage sites and should be seen as an investment for the future.