Rishi Sunak will not live in the official residence of UK PM. Here's why

Rishi Sunak: The No.10 flat has been the official residence of the UK's prime minister.

UK's new prime minister Rishi Sunak and his family will be living in a flat above No 10, Downing Street. Rishi Sunak, along with his wife and two daughters had stayed in the flat when he was chancellor to former UK PM Boris Johnson.

Rishi Sunak: Rishi Sunak, UK prime minister, departs 10 Downing Street. (Bloomberg)

Asked why Rishi Sunak opted for No 10 instead, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: "They were very happy there."

During the leadership contest against Liz Truss- who lived in the flat after Boris Johnson- Rishi Sunak had said that his family would "probably just move back into the flat where we used to live, to be honest" if elected.

“We have already decorated it and it's lovely,” Rishi Sunak had then said.

The No.10 flat has been the official residence of the UK's prime minister and several predecessors including Boris Johnson have lived in the four-bedroom flat. Boris Johnson also got into hot water over an expensive refurbishment of his prime ministerial flat which was overseen by his wife Carrie.

The details of expensive rolls of wallpaper, hyper-fashionable soft furnishings and deep-pocketed donors were quite damaging to the former prime minister's reputation when he was in office.

The flat above No.10- where Rishi Sunak will live- has been officially designated for the chancellor but many PMs have chosen to live in it as it is a larger flat.