Prince William plans Duchy of Cornwall land sales to fund housing and nature

Prince William is preparing to sell about a fifth of the Duchy of Cornwall over the next decade, roughly 25,800 acres of the 128,922-acre estate, and channel the money into housing, nature recovery and community projects. The plan would direct about £500 million into the Duchy’s new priorities, with roughly £160 million earmarked for housing alone.

The scale matters because the Duchy is no ordinary landlord. Created in 1337 by Edward III, the estate spans 19 counties and brings in nearly £23 million a year in private income. William became the 25th Duke of Cornwall in September 2022, after King Charles III became monarch. The Duke does not have access to the estate’s capital value, only the annual revenue surplus, and the Treasury must approve property transactions worth £500,000 or more.

The Duchy says the shift is part of a wider effort to deliver “positive impact for people, places and planet.” Its strategy now aims to make the estate net zero by the end of 2032 and to build a “nature-rich plan” shaped with government through Defra’s National Estate for Nature group. The estate manages more than 6,000 acres of woodland, including 2,550 acres in Cornwall and 1,850 acres in Herefordshire, while also setting out goals for cleaner water and air and healthier soils.

On the ground, that ambition is already showing up in housing and development decisions. At South East Faversham in Kent, the first phase of a 2,500-home scheme was approved for 261 homes, 35% of them affordable, with construction expected to begin in 2027/28. The Duchy has also announced ten sustainable houses on the Isles of Scilly and is working with Three Seas Cornwall to create seven social-rent homes at the former Carn Thomas Primary School in Cornwall. The new funding plan would push more money toward housing in the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall and Kennington in south London.

But the land sales also expose the pressure points inside the Duchy’s reinvention. In March 2026, the estate said it intended to sell 10 farms on the Bradninch estate in Devon, offering tenants first refusal to buy, reportedly with a healthy discount to market rates. Tenants said they were left under heavy strain, and the Tenant Farmers Association warned that even a sale with first refusal could still unsettle farm businesses if families could not buy.

That is why the plan looks both modern and contested. It promises more homes, more habitat and a more active public role for a royal estate. It also turns long-held land into a tool for redevelopment, raising a sharper question about whether the Duchy is being reformed for wider social need or simply rebranded for a new era.