A private box at the Royal Albert Hall (RAH) has been listed for purchase at £3m.
Marketed by Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices, box 14 in the hall’s grand tier has been in the same family for several generations and has 843 years remaining on its lease.
When the hall opened in 1871, it was part-funded by people who were allocated seats in return for their initial investment. Today, 319 people own 1,268 of the hall's seats on 999-year leases.
A new bill, debated by the House of Lords in October, would give the hall’s governing body the authority to sell an additional 52 seats to investors.
Seat holders must also support the hall financially by paying an annual levy called the “seat rate”, which for box 14 will cost £13,795, including VAT. They must also forgo their tickets for some 100 days each year, known as exclusions, so the hall can sell more commercially to non-seat holders.
Seat holders who do not wish to use their seats for a concert or event can return them to the hall’s box office for the face value of the ticket less 10%. But it’s widely understood that some resell their tickets through third-party websites for profit.
The practice was recently condemned by Ed Sheeran after tickets for his November show at RAH were listed at up to £6,000 on the resale website Viagogo, prompting him to write a letter of complaint to the board of trustees.
During a debate on the second hearing of the Royal Albert Hall Bill, former Charity Commission Chair Baroness Stowell reiterated the Commission's long-held objection that more than 75% of the organisation's board of trustees are seat holders who can lawfully profit from ticket resales, should they wish.