Why King Charles Appeared in Manhattan Property Records

For a moment, it looked as though King Charles III had sold an apartment on Park Avenue.

The seller listed in New York City property records carried a title grand enough to stop a reader mid-scroll: “His Majesty the King in Right of Canada.” The apartment sold for $8.05 million. The address was 550 Park Avenue.

The building rose from East 62nd Street beneath tall trees that bent over the sidewalk. A dark green awning stretched over the entrance, its white lettering reading simply: “550 Park Avenue.” A doorman in a gray uniform stood near the doorway while SUVs rolled slowly through the block.

Asked whether he knew “His Majesty the King in Right of Canada” once appeared as the owner of an apartment in the building, the doorman answered quickly. “I’m new,” he said. Maybe he genuinely did not know. Or maybe he was doing what doormen in expensive Manhattan buildings often do best: saying very little.

But the King did not live there. Canada is a constitutional monarchy and after Queen Elizabeth II died in 2022, the same legal title began referring to King Charles III as sovereign of both Canada and the United Kingdom.

“His Majesty in Right of Canada simply means the Canadian federal government,” Philippe Lagassé, a political scientist at Carleton University who studies the Crown and executive authority, told Our Town.

Lagassé said the phrase refers to the Canadian state rather than Charles as an individual person. “The King doesn’t own the property in his natural capacity,” he said. “His legal Canadian personality does.”

Warren Newman, a constitutional scholar at the University of Ottawa, similarly explained to Our Town that “property held in the name of the King in right of Canada is the property of the Government of Canada, not the King personally.”

Global Affairs Canada confirmed to Our Town that the monarch serves as “the legal personification of the state.”

New York property records are already crowded with unusual sovereign names: the Republic of France, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the State of Qatar and the Government of Japan. But “His Majesty the King in Right of Canada” briefly creates the impression that a monarch himself had entered Manhattan real estate.

The apartment at 550 Park Avenue had served as Canada’s official residence in New York since 1961. Canadian officials later testified before Parliament that the apartment was last renovated in 1982.

Officials also testified that the old apartment faced infrastructure and accessibility issues and that the cooperative building imposed restrictions on official functions. Renovating the residence was estimated to cost about $1.9 million.

Whatever problems the apartment had, modesty was not one of them. Residence 12E stretched across nearly 4,600 square feet inside one of Lenox Hill’s old Upper East Side cooperatives. The apartment included five bedrooms, a butler’s pantry, herringbone walnut floors and a formal dining room large enough to host more than 20 guests.

Instead of renovating, Canada bought a replacement residence in 2024: a three-bedroom condominium inside Steinway Tower at 111 W. 57th St. on Billionaires Row for about $6.6 million.

That purchase sparked criticism in Canada, where opposition lawmakers questioned whether buying a luxury Manhattan condo was appropriate during a cost-of-living crisis. Officials defended the decision by arguing that the new residence would lower long-term costs and better fit diplomatic needs, according to CBC.

The new apartment was smaller, about 3,600 square feet compared with the old residence’s nearly 4,600. But the building came loaded with amenities including meeting rooms, dining facilities, concierge services, an 82-foot swimming pool and a golf simulator.

The apartment’s actual resident was not a king but Tom Clark, the veteran broadcaster turned Canada’s consul general in New York.

After more than a year on the market and multiple price cuts, from an initial $9.5 million asking price down to $7.9 million, the old Park Avenue apartment finally sold for $8.05 million.

Property records list Morgan Stanley executive Brian Pfeifler and billionaire investor Philippe Laffont’s trust among the buyers. The sale moved the apartment from diplomatic life into another familiar Manhattan world of immense wealth and private trusts.

For decades, diplomats walked through the apartment’s long hallways and formal rooms beneath the title “His Majesty the King in Right of Canada.” Then, the King sold the apartment. Sort of.