Blog by Susan Smith

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The Queen makes killing in property

Published: 26th October 2009
Fair play to the Queen! Between her grueling schedule of charity work and state engagements, she has found time to ensure her property portfolio has beaten the market by 11.8% over the past 6 months.

Her estate, managed by Crown Estate increased by 8.3 per cent over the period compared to a 3.5% decline in the widely used Investment Property Databank (IPD) index.

The strong performance can be explained by the high proportion of farm and marine land in the portfolio. In particularly, the demand for seabed estate has been boosted by renewable energy operators setting up wind turbines offshore.

Roger Bright, chief executive of the Crown Estate, whose portfolio includes Windsor Great Park and Ascot race course, said: "Overall values have gone down over the last 18 months, but ours have held up better than many others. This is because of the diversified nature of the portfolio, which includes agricultural land and the marine estate as well as commercial property."

If you are reading this from the US, then I’d like to put it on the record that yes, we do know the Queen.  She is popping round to the office a wek on Thursday for a cup of tea and croissant.

Full story on New Zealand Herald.