Prince William to Sell a Fifth of Duchy of Cornwall Land

Prince William is selling about one-fifth of the land held by the Duchy of Cornwall over the next five years, according to Hello Magazine, which published the report on 26 October 2026.

The Duchy of Cornwall is a landed estate whose income goes to the Duke of Cornwall, a title William holds as the heir to the throne. The sales are part of an effort to reform the estate. The money raised is intended for other priorities, including homelessness and climate change.

One of the properties in the sale is the Bradninch Estate in Devon. It covers 3,000 acres and forms part of the Duchy. Hello Magazine describes the holding as worth £23 million a year.

Tenants have been offered first refusal, meaning they get the first chance to buy the homes or land they occupy before it is offered elsewhere. Hello Magazine reports that eight of the nine farming tenants are in talks to buy their land. The discounts on offer depend on how long a tenant has been there and how much they have invested in the property.

The sale has also caused anger. The Observer reported residents' accounts that possession orders, the court orders that require people to leave a property, were issued last month. Under those orders, farmers and renters had six months either to buy their properties or to move out. A Bradninch resident told the Observer: "I've been a royalist all my life and I think Charles was fantastic. William can go to hell."

Prince William is also linked to work on rural wellbeing. He became Patron of We Are Farming Minds, a charity that supports the mental health of farmers, in March 2025. In 2023 he launched a mental health strategy for Duchy tenants, which included a dedicated wellbeing helpline.

The Times reported that William planned to sell a fifth of the Duchy over ten years, and Reuters reported that parts of the estate would be sold over the next decade to help fund more than £500 million of investment in local communities. The Times also described the Duchy as a £1 billion estate.

The Duchy is run for the Duke of Cornwall, so its land decisions are made by its own managers rather than by the government. Its accounts are published each year. Anyone wanting to follow the sale can compare the figures in those accounts with the amounts reported as the sales go through.