After a series of critical articles about the secrecy of royal finances in newspaper Dagbladet, Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon decided to disclose how he has calculated his net worth. He put it at NOK 9 million, plus some major real estate.
Since the royals aren’t required to pay tax, neither he nor other family members turn up on the annual tax lists revealed by state authorities. Since the shielding of the royals runs counter to stated policies of openness, the crown prince clearly felt pressured to ask the palace communications staff to release some of his financial information.
They reported that the crown prince’s personal fortune is “around NOK 9 million (USD 1.1 million) and is placed in funds in Norway and abroad. In addition come the private real estate holdings of Skaugum, Flatholmen and Uvdal.”
The crown prince family’s sprawling rural home at Skaugum in the Oslo suburb of Asker, is estimated to be worth between NOK 150 million and 200 million. The lots where the family built their mountain cabin at Uvdal were purchased for NOK 3.5 million, plus the cost of the buildings, while the crown couple paid NOK 9 million for their summer home Flatholmen, on an island off Kristiansand.
newsinenglish.no staff
