King Charles III during his coronation. Standing with Queen Camilla on the Buckingham Palace balcony.
King Charles climbs Rich List after £150m tax-free inheritance.
Credit: Chadolfski, Shutterstock.
King Charles has quietly risen through the ranks of Britain’s wealthiest, joining the high-rollers of the Sunday Times Rich List with a personal fortune now estimated at £640 million – putting him on par with ex-PM Rishi Sunak and his heiress wife Akshata Murty.
While many billionaires saw their bank balances battered, the King’s financial crown grew heavier, thanks in part to a tidy inheritance from his late mother – passed down without a penny paid in tax.
The number of UK billionaires has dropped from 165 to 156 – the steepest decline in the Rich List’s 37-year history – ‘Our billionaire count is down and the combined wealth of those who feature in our research is falling,‘ said Robert Watts, the list’s compiler, speaking to PA Media. But behind palace walls, the royal coffers are in full bloom.
Charles in charge – and richer than Mum
Charles’s coronation year has turned out to be quite the cash cow. His newfound fortune puts him £270 million ahead of his late mum, Queen Elizabeth II, who was worth an estimated £370 million at the time of her death in 2022.
A good chunk of Charles’s cash comes from the Duchy of Lancaster – a private estate spanning over 18,000 hectares of land in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and even prime real estate in central London. It rakes in around £20 million a year in profits and is valued at a jaw-dropping £654 million.
Charles didn’t pay a penny in inheritance tax on the wealth passed down from his mother. Thanks to a royal exemption, he dodged the standard 40% levy that most of us commoners would face.
Billionaire bloodbath: Who’s up, who’s down?
At the top of the Rich List, it’s still the Hinduja family clinging to the crown, despite a £2 billion drop in their fortune. The Indian industrialists behind the Hinduja Group are now worth £35.3 billion.
Close behind are the Reuben brothers (£26.87 billion), who built their empire on property and tech. Ukrainian-born Sir Leonard Blavatnik rounds out the top three with £25.73 billion to his name.
But the biggest loser this year? Step forward, Sir Jim Ratcliffe – the Manchester United part-owner whose fortune nosedived by more than £6.4 billion. His bank balance now sits at £17.046 billion, down from £23.519 billion, knocking him from fourth to seventh place.
Pop stars, power couples and posh motors
The list wasn’t all about old money. Pop royalty made a splash too – with Dua Lipa, just 29, becoming the youngest under-40 Brit on the list with £115 million to her name. She danced her way to 34th place among the youth elite.
Harry Styles, 31, strutted in at 22nd with £225 million, while Ed Sheeran, 34, crooned his way to 13th with £370 million.
Meanwhile, Britain’s beloved celebrity power couple David and Victoria Beckham made the cut, as did Sir Elton John and Formula One legend Sir Lewis Hamilton – proving that speed, sequins, and spice still pay.
Bye-bye billionaires?
So what’s behind Britain’s billionaire brain-drain?
According to Watts, the UK is becoming less appealing to the global super-rich. The recent scrapping of the non-dom tax status by Rachel Reeves’s Treasury has sent wealthy foreigners packing, so there’s less money coming from that.
‘We expected the abolition of non-dom status would anger affluent people from overseas,‘ Watts explained. And angry they were.
The new system allows newcomers just four years of tax relief on foreign income and gains – and only if they haven’t lived in the UK for any of the past 10 years.
The Tories had planned the changes under former Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, but Labour turbocharged the timeline. The government claims it will rake in £12.7 billion over the next five years.
Blame it on the Yanks?
Adding insult to injury for the super-rich was Donald Trump’s latest trade tantrum. The former US president’s fresh wave of global tariffs in April sent shockwaves through international markets.
The International Monetary Fund said global share prices plummeted “as trade tensions flared” and warned of a growing “erosion of trust” between nations.
Translation? The world’s elite aren’t just tightening their belts – they’re being forced to swap silk for sackcloth.
One man’s recession is another man’s coronation
So, as Britain’s billionaires see their fortunes shrink, one man is quietly getting richer behind palace walls. While the rest of the rich list took a hit, King Charles has come out on top.
God save the King – and his investment portfolio.
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