IN SHORT: Several social media posts, arguing for land expropriation in South Africa, claim that “the queen” owns all the land in the United Kingdom and that everyone else has a 99-year lease. But that's not quite true, as “the crown” shouldn’t be confused with the reigning monarch and there is private land ownership in the UK.
Does the British monarch own all the land in England?
John Hlophe, the parliamentary leader of South Africa’s new opposition uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party), made this claim after being sworn in at the national assembly on 25 June. He was arguing for the MK Party’s policy of land expropriation and nationalisation.
“The land in Africa can never be the subject of private ownership. The land belongs to the nation, it does not form part of private ownership,” he said.
He later added: “And we are not alone in that regard. Look at the UK. The land in England, the land belongs to the queen. Everybody else has a 99-year lease.
“There is no suggestion that in England, because the land belongs to the queen, that the price of housing has dropped. Yet in Africa we are told if we do that the rand is going to fall. We have been fooled for far too long.”
England is one of the countries of the United Kingdom, also known as Britain. The others are Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
By “the queen”, Hlophe presumably meant the British monarch, currently King Charles III since the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. The monarch is the UK’s head of state.
The second of the eight pillars in the MK Party’s manifesto includes a commitment to “expropriate all land without compensation, transferring ownership to the people under the state and traditional leaders”.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), another South African opposition party, has a similar stance on land.
The claim that the monarch owns all the land in England – or the UK as a whole – has also been circulating on social media, in some instances since before Hlophe’s statement.
“The Queen of England owns Britain, Canada and Australia and the land in Britain belongs to her,” reads a 24 June 2024 post on Facebook. “The biggest economy in the world, which is China, owns the land and there is no problem but when SA wants to own the land then it’s a problem.”
A later X post reads: “I support the idea of gvmnt becoming a custodian of all land. If you have no use for the land, you must relinquish it to the state to distribute it to those who need to use it. This is happening in economy jurisdictions that we admire. In England, the land belongs to the queen.”
Other versions include:
- “I think the model the EFF is advocating for is similar to one used in England where all the land belongs to the Queen - in our case I guess it would belong to Government.”
- “[…] English law […] states all land in England belongs to the Queen.”
- “In UK the King Charles owns all the land and everyone has 99 year leases and it works very well. No one complains.”
- “No one owns the land in England, it is owned by the King/Queen. They're all on 99yr lease. Are they poor?”
But is any of this true? We looked into it.
The monarch is not the crown
A 2022 UK house of commons research briefing reads:
Land ownership in England and Wales is based on historical feudal principles. The Crown owns all land in England and Wales; people own estates in land either directly or indirectly from the Crown (for example, a freehold estate or a leasehold estate).
There are two important points here. First, “the crown” is not the same as the monarch. Second, a “freehold estate” is privately owned land.
Another briefing defines the crown: “The Crown encompasses both the monarch and the government. It is vested in the King, but in general its functions are exercised by Ministers of the Crown accountable to the UK Parliament or the three devolved legislatures.” It is equivalent to the state in other countries.
The crown “owns” the land in the sense that all land ownership is given legal weight by the crown, which has sovereignty over the land.
Freehold and leasehold land ownership
A freehold estate is land that is freely and privately owned. It is not owned by the monarch. Freehold land ownership has been a principle of British law for centuries.
“The term freehold property ownership refers to the ownership of both the land and the building on it for an indefinite period of time,” says one UK property expert.
In fact, the HM Land Registry, a government department created in 1862, exists to “register the ownership of land and property in England and Wales”.
King Charles himself privately owns an extensive portfolio of freehold property – but not “all the land”.
Leasehold property, on the other hand, is owned only for a fixed period of time. It is leased from the landowner, also called the freeholder. Leases have no specific timeframe. They can be as short as one day or as long as 999 years.
Land is also privately owned in Scotland, where there are concerns about the small number of landowners who hold huge swathes of the country’s land, particularly in rural areas. Northern Ireland also has private land ownership.
What about Australia, Canada and China?
The UK monarch is also the head of state of the countries of Australia and Canada, a legacy of the colonial British empire. But private land ownership exists in both countries. In Australia, there is an argument that the land belongs to the First Nations people, not the British monarch.
China is where the claim comes closest to being correct. The land there belongs to the people, under the custodianship of the state. All urban land is owned by the state, but any buildings constructed on it may be privately owned. Rural land may be owned by the state or by collectives.
The question of land ownership is complex. But the claim that the British monarch owns all the land in England, or the UK, is false.
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