The Queen has had a good six months, which the Crown Estate attributes to her diverse portfolio. Photo / AP

The Queen has had a good six months, which the Crown Estate attributes to her diverse portfolio. Photo / AP

The Queen has beaten the property market over the past six months, with a big rebound in the valuation of her portfolio, leaving many commercial rivals trailing in her wake.

Her estate - which is now worth £6.5 billion ($14 billion) - has received a £500 million boost and she is pressing ahead with major redevelopment schemes through the recession in the hope of building longer-term success.

While her property manager, the Crown Estate, has ticked up an 8.3 per cent increase over the past six months, the widely used Investment Property Databank (IPD) index is down 3.5 per cent.

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."

The Crown Estate announced this summer that the overall portfolio had dropped by 18 per cent to £6 billion year-on-year, the first fall in value for 15 years, but now it is saying it is cautiously optimistic about the future.

In the past six months there has been an upward movement in the portfolio's value helped by a big increase in the value of farm land and by demand for the seabed estate thanks to renewable energy operators setting up wind turbines offshore.

Nick Nabarro, senior manager at IPD, said the picture for the property market remained uncertain. "Without a doubt some portfolios have performed significantly better, but the average for the last six months remains 3.5 per cent down," he said.

"High-quality assets are being actively pursued by foreign investors."

The wider commercial property side of the Crown Estate portfolio is continuing to dip slightly but Bright says the value of prime properties "has more or less stabilised".

Rental revenues remain under pressure in London's West End as businesses continue to shed staff in the recession and Bright was unwilling to predict when this trend might end, but he was "cautiously optimistic" for the business as a whole, which returned more than £220 million to the British government Treasury in the last financial year.

- OBSERVER

By Terry Macalister