Ell Folan: At the weekend, Charles will be coronated. As king, Charles enjoys many privileges: sweeping immunity from many laws, the ability to vet legislation, a huge fortune and a sizeable grant (roughly £330m per year) from the public purse. Not that he needs the cash: becoming the monarch has vastly expanded Charles' already sizeable property empire, making him an uber-landlord.
Upon taking the throne, Charles became the largest individual landowner in Britain, presiding over around 700,000 acres of various types of land together worth an estimated £5bn. The king's property empire doesn't just include palaces like Buckingham Palace (£3.9bn), Hampton Court Palace (£960m) Kensington Palace (£500m) and Balmoral (£95m); it extends all the way to business parks and even small rented cottages. Of the top ten most valuable residential homes, the monarch owns six.
Residential homes are not the only valuable buildings in his portfolio. He also owns the Tower of London (visited by 2m tourists last year), which is worth around £880m; in addition, the monarch earns £28m per year from estates overseen by the Duchy of Lancaster. Overall, Charles' array of homes, historic landmarks and tourist attractions are collectively worth £20bn.
Expensive buildings are not Charles' only holdings, however. Among the more surprising parts of Charles' empire are his 285,000 acres of mineral-rich land, from which the Crown Estate enjoys rights to extract coal, gold, silver, limestone and more. As king, Charles also owns over half of Britain's shoreline and virtually all of the seabed (as well as any resources found therein), together worth around £2bn. Charles also owns around 300,000 acres of rural land worth £3bn. | |
