Thailand’s late king was a real estate billionaire

The Crown Property Bureau controls roughly $30B in assets

The king of Thailand, the world’s longest ruling monarch, died this week. He also died one of the world’s richest monarchs, and a nice chunk of his billions came from…guess where? Real estate.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej ruled Thailand for 70 years and during that time he amassed a $30 billion fortune – according to a 2011 Forbes estimate. And according to Fox News, a large chunk of that fortune was made on the Bangkok property market – as well as interests in two of the country’s biggest companies.

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The Crown Property Bureau’s holdings cover 3,320 acres in Bangkok and more than 13,000 acres in the rest of the country, with some 40,000 rental contracts, according to Fox. The high estimate of the value of the Bangkok property alone is roughly $28 billion — although the bureau values it at less than a third of that.

The Crown Property Bureau is, however, quick to point out that the property assets are not the king’s personal property, and are “held in trust for the nation.” [Fox] Christopher Cameron