- [Narrator] The Bank of England may have been busy
printing money with King Charles III's face on it,
but little is known about how much money he makes
or how much he's worth.
He's inherited land, properties and other items
from Queen Elizabeth II,
and one estimate suggests his fortune is some $745 million.
But a lack of transparency from the royals
makes it difficult to determine exactly how rich Charles is.
Here's what we do know about his sources of income
and what it all adds up to.
Charles has always had
something of an entrepreneurial spirit.
In 1990, he launched his Duchy Originals range
of organic oat biscuits,
which later expanded to other products
made on the prince's estate.
Those products were eventually sold
exclusively in British supermarket Waitrose
as part of a partnership deal.
The brand reported profits of over $4 million last year,
all of which was donated
to the Prince of Wales's charitable foundation.
As the Prince of Wales and heir to the throne
Charles also controlled the Duchy of Cornwall,
an estate with net assets of 1.3 billion,
which covers almost 130,000 acres of land across England.
Its net assets have increased in value by 44% since 2012,
with Charles seeing his income from the estate
increase 25% over the past decade.
He raked in $28.3 million last year, mostly through rent
from commercial and residential properties.
Now that Charles is king, the Duchy of Cornwall,
along with its multimillion dollar income,
goes to his eldest son, William.
- He succeeds me as Duke of Cornwall
and takes on the responsibilities for the Duchy of Cornwall
which I have undertaken for more than five decades.
- [Narrator] But that hardly leaves the king destitute.
Charles inherited the Duchy of Lancaster from his mother,
worth around $800 million.
It consists of more than 45,000 acres
of commercial, agricultural and residential properties
in England and Wales
and provides a private income for the monarch.
The late queen earned $29.7 million from it last year,
and there's nothing to suggest
her son won't take home a similar amount.
He also doesn't have to pay any taxes on Duchy revenue,
though he will follow in the queen's footsteps
and opt to pay income tax
after deducting money spent on official duties.
But the Duchy of Lancaster
isn't the monarch's only source of income,
or even their most valuable.
A large amount of King Charles's income
derives from something called the Sovereign Grant.
Here's how that works.
In the 1700s, the monarchy handed over revenues
from swaths of land to the government
known as the Crown Estate.
These days, the Crown Estate makes money
on a range of assets from retail property to golf courses
and even offshore wind farms.
Those assets are valued at around $20 billion.
- I take this opportunity to continue the tradition
of surrendering the hereditary revenues,
including the Crown Estate,
to my government for the benefit of all
in return for the Sovereign Grant.
- [Narrator] Every year the government pays
a percentage of the profits made on those assets
back to the monarchy.
Last year, it totaled more than $106 million.
That was used to fund the queen's official duties
and maintain royal residencies, including Buckingham Palace,
which is kept in a trust for the reigning monarch.
The king does not personally own the properties
making up the Crown Estate
and can't sell them for his own financial gain,
unlike the two properties
we know he inherited from his mother,
Sandringham House in Norfolk
and Balmoral Castle in Scotland
which has been in the royal family since 1852.
- [Reporter] The 80,000 acre preserve
in the Scottish Highlands
has since been the holiday retreat
for Britain's ruling families.
(happy music)
- [Narrator] The two estates passed
from monarch to monarch
until Edward VIII's abdication in 1936
when a financial settlement
saw them transferred to his brother
and Charles's grandfather George VI.
Each is valued between $66 and $79 million
by one royal expert,
although a potential market price for this kind of asset
is difficult to determine.
Last year, a cottage on the Sandringham Estate
was made available on Airbnb
as a holiday rental by Norfolk Hideaways.
Visitors can book the Garden House
for just over $1,000 per night.
Norfolk Hideaways couldn't say
how much of any revenue from the listing
went back to the royal family.
The Balmoral Estate in Scotland also rents out cottages
in addition to selling ticketed tours.
The king could also have inherited
Queen Elizabeth's personal investment portfolio,
the value of which is undisclosed.
The palace won't comment on the monarch's wealth
or the contents of wills.
They say it's a private matter.
We do know that Charles paid no inheritance tax
on any of the assets passed to him by the queen.
But unlike other UK citizens,
royal family members don't have to make their wills public.
This means we can't determine
what Charles inherited from his mother
or father Prince Philip,
so we may never know what he's truly worth.