Prince Charles to fork out £10m on 123-room Port Eliot mansion in Cornwall

It looks like Prince Charles is taking advantage of the recent fall in house prices by adding another property to his impressive portfolio.

According to the Daily Mail, the second in line to the British throne is in talks with aristocrat Peregrine Eliot, Earl of St Germans, to buy his 123-room mansion for a reported £10m ($15.1m). The Port Eliot estate is located in Cornwall, where the annual Port Eliot arts festival is held.

"Lord St Germans and his trustees have invited the Prince's Foundation for Building Community to conduct a feasibility study, to explore the possibility of the purchase of Port Eliot House, some of its contents and its walled garden and stables," the Earl's spokesman said.

If the property, which is rich in history, does change hands it means that the 74-year-old's 10-year-old grandson Albert will inherit the Earl's title and not the ancestral home, which has been in family since the 16th century.

"It will mean that the estate maintains its income and is relieved of the huge burden of running the house,' says the Earl's 45-year-old third wife, former magazine journalist Cathy Wilson.

"Considering the alternatives, ie the National Trust, a fleeing oligarch or the house and contents being broken up, this is a sensational deal and a terrific turn-up for the estate."

Before his death in 2006, Eliot's party-loving son Jago Eliot expressed fears that his father was putting his inheritance in jeopardy by selling a small farm on the estate to buy a London townhouse for his new wife. In his will, he stated that he wanted his possessions held in family trusts for his son Albert and also appointed his wife's mother Karen as his children's guardian rather than his father.

This is not the first time Charles has done business with Earl. In July 2014 the Duchy of Cornwall estate bought more than 800 acres of land at Port Eliot for £4.7m. In 2007, he brought Dumfries House in Scotland for £45m.