Singapore, Osaka and Hong Kong are the most expensive cities in the world. But when it comes to most expensive mansions or houses, there is another country in the top.
There are not United States of America, but United Kingdom. Buckingham Palace in London it is the most expensive mansions. The value is about $1.55 Billion.
Incidentally, the closest thing the United States has to a Buckingham Palace, the White House, is valued at $410 million.
In second place it comes Antilia, Mumbai in India with $1 Billion and third Villa Leopolda, Villefranche-sur-Mer, in France: $750 Million.
Buckingham Palace, $1.55 Billion
Although it’s unlikely to come on the market anytime soon, the palatial residence of Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is generally agreed to be the world’s most valuable residence, estimated by Money magazine (among others) to be worth some $1.55 billion.
Part of that price tag may be due to the palace’s royal provenance and part to its location in London, a city whose land is among the world’s most expensive. But the building isn’t too shabby, either.
Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms, including 52 bedrooms for the royals and their guests, 188 bedrooms for staff, 78 bathrooms and 92 offices. That’s in addition to 19 staterooms—among them a state dining room, a music room and, an obvious necessity for any sitting monarch, a throne room.
Antilia, $1 Billion
Probably the world’s priciest private residence, often valued at $1 billion, Antilia is a 400,000-square-foot 27-story mansion completed in 2010. In fact, calling it 27 stories hardly does it justice.
At 570 feet in height, it is the equivalent of a 50- to 60-story building, with an offbeat shape that defies easy description. The New York Times characterized it as “a Blade Runner-meets-Babylon edifice.”
The towering mansion, apparently named after a mythical island in the Atlantic Ocean, is owned by Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries and reportedly the richest person in India.
Its amenities include three helipads, a 50-seat movie theater and six floors of parking space. To maintain all that, Ambani employs a staff reported to number 600.
Villa Leopolda, $750 Million
This French Riviera estate takes its name from King Leopold II of Belgium, who acquired the property in the late 1890s.
Since then it has had a number of owners, served as a military hospital during the First World War, and appeared in the classic ballet film “The Red Shoes” and supposedly in Alfred Hitchcock’s “To Catch a Thief.” Today it is owned by Lily Safra, a philanthropist and the widow of the billionaire banker Edmond Safra.
The 29,000-square-foot main house reportedly has 11 bedrooms and 14 baths. There are also two guest houses, a pool, and some 18 acres of trees and gardens said to keep 50 gardeners busy fulltime. Its recent value has been estimated at $750 million.