King Charles III is in line for a £45 million payday after record-breaking profit from the Crown Estate, which part funds the monarchy and has major plans to update prime London real estate, not least Regent Street.
The Crown Estate made a net revenue profit of £1.1 billion for the year to the end of March, up from £443 million in 2023. Some 12% of the profits go to the crown to fund its day-to-day work and the ongoing multi-million refurbishment of Buckingham Palace.
The Crown Estate is a major London landlord, with a property portfolio in the capital worth almost £7 billion and revenue of almost £230 billion.
It also owns the seabed around the country and has benefitted from the boom in renewable energy, with enough to power around 11 million homes from over 50 windfarms, including off the Scottish coast.
Its total property portfolio is now worth over £14 billion, it revealed today, with net assets of £15.5 billion. Over £4 billion has been “returned to the nation’s finances over the past decade”, it said.
Dan Labbad, chief executive, said: “While some areas of our work are more mature than others, we are making real progress,” adding:
“Our purpose to create lasting and shared prosperity for the nation informs everything we do, and helps us to navigate a wider context in which change has become a constant.”
In the capital, the Crown Estate says it is “enhancing London’s global city status by fostering a greener, more vibrant and inclusive destination for millions of visitors and businesses.”
It has around 10 million square feet of prime London real estate and says it wants to “support renewal” helping the capital to “to remain locally relevant and globally distinctive … by creating districts that are welcoming and accessible; environmentally and socially sustainable; and connected.”
Regent Street will be central to an upcoming “park-to-park” to highlight the famous thoroughfare as a linking between Regent’s Park and St James’s Park.
There will be 5,000 square metres of additional pedestrian space, 330 planters, 60 trees, accessible seating and cycle lanes, in a project that will also reach Haymarket and Piccadilly Circus.
An international design competition to source the lead urban designer will be held this year before work starts on the drawing board.
Crown Estate has already brought in new brands and says it is “striving to diversify our offering and attract a broader range of customers to the West End”.
There are now “flagship stores” in Regent Street from HOFF Trainers, the Bimba Y Lola handbag chain and the Paul & Shark leisurewear brand.
And a “district led” approach t leasing means the Princes Arcade between Jermyn Street and Piccadilly has been used as “as an incubator space for young, design-led businesses” and is now fully let for the first time in its history.
