U.K. Royal Family Gets Financial Boost From Offshore Wind and Palaces

New reports on the finances of Britain’s royal family and its ancient property portfolio have revealed a double dose of good news for the household, which has been destabilized by illness and injury in recent months.

Profits from the Crown Estate, which oversees the royal family’s massive land and property holdings, jumped to £1.1 billion (about $1.4 billion) from £442.6 million in the previous year, according to the estate’s annual report, mainly thanks to deals involving the leasing of seabed sites to offshore wind producers.

As a result, the money the royal family receives from the government — known as the sovereign grant — will rise to £132 million in 2025-2026, up from £86.3 million in recent years.

For centuries, net profits from the Crown Estate have been passed to the government, in return for a fixed yearly payment to fund the royal family and its duties. Since 2012, this payment has taken the form of the sovereign grant, which is calculated as a percentage of the estate’s profits.

King Charles previously requested that the anticipated surge in profits from the wind power deals be used for the “wider public good.” As a result, the previous government agreed to reduce the sovereign grant to 12 percent of net profits from this year onward, down from 25 percent. If the grant had remained at 25 percent, the king would have received £275 million instead of £132 million, a huge rise that could have jeopardized the royal family’s popularity at a time when much of Britain is still mired in a cost-of-living crisis.

The chief executive of the Crown Estate, Dan Labbad, wrote in the annual report that the profit boost was “short term in nature,” adding that over the coming years “revenue and valuation will normalize.”