In Montecito, California, a mansion suited for royalty is proving harder to sell than expected. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 13,600-square-foot Lilac Drive estate – on the market for more than four years and recently marked down by $3 million – still awaits a buyer.
Just a short drive from the family’s current seven-acre residence, the property offers sweeping views but less privacy. Instead of serving as their primary home, the Lilac Drive estate has been more of a creative outpost , doubling as a studio where the pair can film projects in a “home-away-from-home” while they navigate the buying market.
Three, two, one, action!
This single-family home sits on just over two acres with six bedrooms, six full bathrooms, and two half-baths. Built in 2006, the estate’s open airways and spacious yard with an in-ground pool create the perfect climate to film content about the hardships of royal life.
The property initially sold in 2013 for $14.6 million, a 20% decrease in value from the initial listing price. However, it wasn’t utilized until 2021 by Meghan and Harry, after they had bought their own home nearby. It was then re-listed in 2021 for $33.5 million, tracking a 129% increase in value over the 8-year period it was off the market. Since then, news on the property has been relatively stagnant. There has been some alleged interest and even initial offers, but nothing concrete has gone through to find the estate a new owner. The sprawling house and landscape within it has, effectively, become a giant Netflix set, ready to meet the whims of the previously-royal couple as needed.
After first listing the property in 2021, the royal pair removed it from the market in consideration of their upcoming six-part Netflix series “Harry & Meghan.” The entire project was filmed in and around their estate that was previously for sale, grounding the couple in familiarity as they shared their tumultuous love story, especially in the eyes of other royals. However, the location didn’t soften the blow: the series was subject to intense backlash and defamatory outrage.
Despite intense criticism, the couple continued to utilize the Montecito space, even as it remained listed for sale in an otherwise booming market. Markle’s series “With Love, Meghan,” which was released this past spring, centers around cooking and gardening with celebrity guests. The producers have also opted to film in the Lilac Drive location.
And yet, reporters have picked up on the veiled use of the for-sale property, inciting headlines like “Spoiler: That’s Not Actually Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s House,” from Architectural Digest and other sources. The constant coverage following the release of the couple’s tell-all in the Montecito estate hasn’t helped increase its real estate potential. It has now been on the market for over 1,500 days revealing that even intense celebrity use can’t create the necessary value in a property.
Life at Lilac Drive
Ryan Malmsten, one of the co-listers on the property, claimed in an interview with SF Gate that they had come close to closing the property on multiple occasions, yet nothing will stick. Some have begun to cite the incredible size of the property, noting its difference in acreage as compared to similar listings in the same area. Two properties posted nearby boast a similar price tag but only half the square footage, and were quickly gobbled up.
Real life in the estate seems to be unfathomable: while it’s useful as a backdrop to explore intense emotional baggage or familial drama, actually living in the house doesn’t seem realistic. Its expansive size offers too much of a headache to cultivate, and the already massive increase in value from its previous listing in 2013 seems to scare away would-be investors, seeing as there doesn’t appear to be many more improvements to be made.
It’s not without considering that the property’s most stubborn hurdle isn’t the acreage or the price tag, but the names on the deed. Buying the Sussexes’ home means stepping into a global conversation. The couple remain polarizing figures; for some, they symbolize independence from tradition, while for others, they embody betrayal or spectacle. A buyer willing to claim their estate may unintentionally signal an allegiance, or at the very least, a willingness to shoulder the weight of their narrative. In that sense, this Lilac Drive estate may just be a statement piece, one that speaks as loudly about its owners as the ocean views it commands.
The current market doesn’t seem to bite on the offerings of Lilac Drive, they’re focused instead on less controversial, smaller spaces that offer opportunities for up-scaling to find a return on investment, instead of public scrutiny. Perhaps the property will find a home with another owner who’s more apt to utilize the space, whether it be for a family of 5 or 500 guests — after all, it isn’t just a Netflix set.
