Rents in the U.K. are increasing at a record pace, and it’s reportedly helped King Charles III bring in some major dough.
The monarch received 26.2 million pounds ($34.3 million) from his vast property empire this year, according to The New York Times. He inherited the massive 45,000-acre spread—known as the Duchy of Lancaster—from Queen Elizabeth II when she passed away last fall. The land, which is about the size of Washington, D.C., has amasses millions annually in rental income. Not only that, but Charles isn’t obligated to pay corporation taxes unlike most businesses in the country (though he does voluntarily pay an unknown amount on his income).
The information on the king’s property comes from recently published records detailed about the Duchy’s finances, the first time such a disclosure has been released during Charles’s reign. The data shows that the land generated more income than it ever did when it was under his mother’s control.
That’s likely because of a 3 percent increase in rent for tenants residing on royal land over the last fiscal year. The Duchy said that “refurbishment and restoration” resulted in “improved rental values.” He also separately receives an annual £86 million (around $112 million) from the taxpayer-funded Sovereign Grant, money that covers most of his royal expenses.
A duchy is a territory that’s maintained by a duke or duchess; Charles’s Duchy of Lancaster consists of a $1 billion real estate portfolio, which makes money for the royal family member presiding over it. Before becoming king, Charles ran the Duchy of Cornwall, another portfolio that is now maintained by his son Prince William.
Although the duchies are the primary sources of private income for the royal family, they are only a small part of the monarchy’s estimated $28 billion fortune. The rest comes from other real estate holdings under the Crown Estate, a government Sovereign Grant, and of course, Buckingham and Kensington Palaces.
