Why does Charles need 10 residences?

[PosieLuton]

Is this his version of a slimmed down Monarchy? He has always been known to be a spendthrift with himself and very careful with everyone else. So his residences are:
Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, Sandringham, Windsor Castle that is currently being renovated for him, Highgrove, Balmoral, Birkhall and Castle of Mey, plus his Romanian home and Llwynywermod in Wales.

The 'royal family' does not exist as a legal entity.

The sovereign controls the Crown Estates. The various sons, brothers, nephews, nieces, cousins and the like have nothing to do with it.

The Monarch i.e. Charles controls the Crown Estates. He decides how the houses and land are used and pockets 25% of any profits made by the people actually managing land and property.

Yes, but you’d need to have a building of historic significance to donate to them first, and then negotiate yourself and your descendants the right still to occupy it. But plenty of families have done so. Scotney Castle is a good example - the public had the right to visit the gardens and estate since 1970, but the house was private until the last family member died in 2007.

The Duke of Wellington still lives in a portion of Apsley House and the rest is operated by English Heritage.

But this is where you own the house you have bought with money.
The Royal Family have not bought all the properties and land that make up the Crown Estate.

No, but they have acquired the valid title

Methods used over the course of history would not be acceptable now, but that doesn't mean the ownership is in dispute.

Quite. The Royal family have Windsor castle because William the Conqueror invaded the country in 1066 and thought it was a good site, so started to build - castle there in 1070.

There will plenty of family or institutional land now that comes from similar sources. I don’t fancy your, or anyone’s, chances of challenging the impact of historical events…

The Crown Estate does not belong to the RF, it belongs to the reigning monarch in so far as they are the head of state. It's not their private property and they can't sell it.

The state does get 100% and of that it allots a certain amount in the form of the sovereign grant to the head of state, ie the monarch, to carry out their duties and to be responsible for certain upkeep of buildings, etc. That amount of money would be spent even if we had an elected head-onf state. The sovereign grant is about £52m. (It's temporarily receiving extra which is to be spent solely on the refurbishment of Buckingham Palace). For comparison the French presidency costs €100m. And also having an elected head of state you have the costs of an election. A national election costs about £100m. So to elect a president on a 4 year term would be £25m a year. So if you take that off the sovereign grant because we're saved that, the grant actually costs us £29m a year. Seems a bargain to me.

I don't want the govt to be selling off assets that produce an annual income in order to fund a particular govts agenda. Govts often do that to gain short-term popularity. It's rarely a successful strategy.

King Charles doesn't need 10 homes but fact is he has them - or the use of them for some of the time. They will hopefully stay in the BRF into the future and will be well kept and preserved. Many of the buildings are shared; open to the public for weeks and earn income for their own repairs. Many are used to receive official and non official dignitries or members of charities etc. The buildings employ people and are the homes of many more than just the King..

Because he’s a king you doofus

Good point well made 😂

This is one of the key points with any 'glorious revolution' in modern times - how to seize inherited assets of just some of the population. There are very few wealthy people who are completely self-made. And even some moderately wealthy people have inherited money which routes back to practices which would not be legal or ethical today.

I want lots of residences! Give them to me! Waaaaaaaaah!

You do realise don't you that he is in the process of reallocating and moving on the Royal residences....His mother just died, so he has all hers and all his now...(Plus the one of the Queen Mothers).

William will need a welsh residence etc..Now he has Balmoral, I'm sure he won't keep Birkhall (that was always for use of the Prince of Wales....) but again he may be thinking about it....

I imagine Highgrove will be a tough decision for him as Monarch he just doesn't need it, but it is his own home and has been for a long time.

Certain lack of critical thinking skills - he has more houses than the Queen as she has been gone less than 6 months! He's probably still thinking about what to do with them ...whatever time he has is probably taken up with relocating Andrew and Harry....neither of whom need the houses they have any more.

Some (like Anmer) may end up getting mothballed or let until the next generation need them.

@wordler

The point being we aren't paying for these wealthy people's residences are we ?

We are forking out undisclosed amounts ( must keep it secret ! Because - you know - royalty says so!) for year round security for Emily palaces

You cannot apply rules that apply to other rich people to the Windsors .
The Windsors do not abide by the law. They keep their wills secret and any tax they choose to pay is voluntary

I really don't like the contrast between Charles' personal extravagance & acquisition of multiple properties and the rhetoric coming from the Royal Household about how minor royals will have to pay their way, market rents, etc. He has had the income from the Duchy of Cornwall, and now from the Duchy of Lancaster, ever since he was 21, and so has never had to think about money.

I'm not especially pro-royal, but if you exist to preserve the hereditary principle, then I would have thought looking after your family, especially the ones who do work in the family business, should absolutely be a priority for you.

Caveat: all these people are enormously privileged etc etc, but I just dislike the punitive note coming from the top. It's fine to make it clear that William and Harry's cousins will need to make their own way, and that seems to have been clear from the start: less so to change the rules for earlier generations. In my somewhat garbled opinion.

They always had to pay market rents, but the Queen covered it for most of them from her own money. Presumably the king will do the same?

Not always; there was a huge hooha when it transpired that Prince & Princess Michael of Kent were paying something like £70 a week for a 15 room apartment in Kensington Palace. I think that's probably what kicked off the market rents thing.

Wow - just googled and that was in 2010. I'd have said much, much earlier than that.

I imagine Highgrove will be a tough decision for him as Monarch he just doesn't need it, but it is his own home and has been for a long time.

Highgrove is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall.

Charles has been paying recycled 'rent' right back to himself for years. He's currently lining his son's pockets. He ditched 'Home Farm' in much the same way he ditched 'Duchy Originals' when it wasn't turning him a dime.

I'm not calling sentimental.

They always had to pay market rents, but the Queen covered it for most of them from her own money

They didn't and Tupperware, one bar Liz wouldn't have dreamt of covering the true difference. .

He doesn't own or reside in Dumfries House. Its owned and run by https://princes-foundation.org/about

for sustainable community benefit. Well worth a visit if you're in the area.

They can be used as hotels, gallaries, event space, public gardens etc.
No one travels to the UK to see the RF and even if they did we're aiming for net 0 so we won't want anyone traveling to see them, they can watch them on TV but if it's the beauty of the buildings then they can be used as above.

The buildings aren't even the main issue in my view.
The Crown Estate owns 678,420 acres (274,550 ha). The RF and particularly Charles is the Crown. Approximately 55% of the UK's foreshore is owned by the Crown Estate. Even if they sold 50% of these lands their great-grand children will still be wealthy. Yet people are conditioned to frown on the lowly commoner who buys a property to secure a pension for himself or help his family. The press will never mention this. In fact they'll tell you how hard the RF work and how much they deserve all the land, houses, assistance, staff, privilege, class and more.

Exactly! Shocking how many easily say "Crown Estate". Who's the ultimate beneficiary? The Crown! Charles and the institution that serves him.

Get rid of the monarchy then we won’t need to worry. The only likeable ones are gone.

I would not like to sell anymore land and buildings to overseas investors ffs they own half my town they put up extortionate rent so no-one ever rents them out and leave the buildings to rot the local council refuse to use compulsory purchase orders so we have rotting buildings instead of a high street

He has about 10 houses in Romania.