Queen Elizabeth: Just How Rich is She?

[digitalkat]

For those who are curious:

http://www.bloomberg.com/...just-how-rich-is-she.html

http://www.forbes.com/sit...izabeth-and-her-family/2/

Queen Elizabeth, 85, has an estimated personal net worth of $500 million that comes from property holdings including Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands, stud farms, a fruit farm and marine land throughout the U.K.; extensive art and fine jewelry; and one of the world’s largest stamp collections built by her grandfather.

Not included are those assets belonging to the Crown Estate, which she gets to enjoy as Queen, such as $10 billion worth of real estate, Buckingham Palace (estimated to be worth another $5 billion), the Royal Art collection, and unmarked swans on stretches of the Thames.  The Crown has claimed ownership of these birds since the 12th century when swan meat was considered a delicacy; they are no longer eaten. The Queen also receives an annual government stipend of $12.9 million.

[Lolly]

I wonder how cash-rich she is. I've caught a couple of programs on the Queen this past week, and it seems that when Windsor burned, the Queen did not have enough personal cash to cover repair costs (about $35 million at the time according to the program).

[just a serf]

She has plenty of cash IMO it's just a question of her being willing to access it.

I wouldn't pay for repairs in my house if there was a chance I could get a public grant! 

[willywonka85]

I don't think she's particularly cash rich.  She clearly owns plenty of property and family jewels, but I don't think she has buckets of cash sitting around.  Nor do I think the farms at Balmoral or Sandringham are likely to be making a huge amount of profit.  The Single Farm Payment that farmers receive through the EU's CAP probably keeps things ticking over with all profits reinvested in the estates.

When Diana got a divorce settlement from Charles of some £17 million, he had to ask his mother for help as he didn't have anything like that kind of cash.  The Queen banks with Coutts so they'll probably have provided her with a loan facility which Charles will have been paying back for her.