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Ambani's 27-storey, 400,000-square-foot Antilia, named after a mythical island in the Atlantic, tops the list with a value of over $1 billion. "The title of the most outrageously-expensive property in the world still belongs to Mukesh Ambani's Antilia in Mumbai," Forbes said. The house has six storeys of underground parking, three helicopter pads, and reportedly requires a staff of 600 for upkeep.
Putting Antilia's scale and cost into perspective, Forbes compared it to '7, World Trade Center', a 52-storey tower that stands near Ground Zero in Manhattan with 1.7 million square feet of office space, reportedly built for $2 billion.
Mittal's houses in London's Kensington Palace Gardens stand 5th and 18th on the list of 21 most expensive billionaire homes. The steel magnate is believed to own three homes on the high-security street known as 'Billionaires Row', including a neo-Georgian mansion near the Israeli embassy, rumoured to have been purchased for his son. Sold by hedge fund billionaire Noam Gottesman in 2008 for about $222 million, the mansion is reportedly up for sale now.
Another 55,000-square-foot mansion owned by Mittal on the upscale street was purchased for nearly $90 million in 2004 from billionaire Bernie Ecclestone. After pouring millions more into its renovation, Mittal had named it 'Taj Mittal'. The house has 12 bedrooms, a pool and marble sourced from the same quarry as the Taj Mahal, Forbes said.
"As 2014 continues, the list of outrageously-priced homes owned by billionaires is stacking up. Though the market cooled off a bit in 2013, with no properties trading hands above the $100-million mark, 2014 has kicked off with a bang. London set a new record, and three homes have been sold for more than $100 million so far this year in the US alone," Forbes said. The second on the Forbes list is 'Villa Leopolda', the home of Brazilian philanthropist and social figure Lily Safra in France.
The magazine said the estate was reportedly one of several waterside homes that King Leopold II of Belgium built for his many mistresses. Set on 20 acres, the massive home was valued at $750 million at the time Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov tried to buy it in 2008. The third-most expensive billionaire home - the most expensive in the US - is the residence of American investor and businessman Ira Rennert in Sagaponack, New York. Its value is pegged at about $248.5 million.
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1 Antilia, Mumbai, India Owner: Mukesh Ambani ($23.9 bn) Value: Over $1 bn 2 Villa Leopolda, Villefranche-sur-mer, France Owner: Lily Safra ($1.3 billion) Purchase price: $750 mn in 2008 3 Fair Field, New York, USA Owner: Ira Rennert ($6 bn) Value: About $248.5 mn 4 One Hyde Park, London, UK Owner: Unknown Sale price: $237 mn in May 2014 5 Kensington Palace Gardens, London, UK Owner: Lakshmi N Mittal ($16.6 bn) Purchase price: $222 mn in 2008 |
