It’s hard to believe, but yes, another house in London beats the $1.55 billion royal residence, Buckingham Palace, as the most expensive home in the world. And according to a new release by CompareCamp.com, it’s not even all that close!
Want to know more about the world’s priciest palaces? Here Pursuitist runs down the top ten most expensive homes in the world:
10) Located in London’s Billionaire’s Row, Kensington Palace Gardens were once residences of dukes and duchesses… and they still are! Prince William and Kate (Duchess of Cambridge) live here, but in one more humble than the tenth on the list. Roman Abramovich, Russian billionaire and owner of the Chelsea Football Club starts off the list with his ritzy residence, which may be worth even more than $140 million when he completes his plans for a subterranean tennis court and an auto museum.
9) Jack of all Trades (real estate developer, record producer, songwriter, and timber baron) Tim Blixseth and his ex-wife Edra own the ninth most expensive, $155 million Seven the Pinnacle, in Montana, which is the largest propery in Yellowstone Club, a billionaires-only ski and golf community. They enjoy heated floors throughout, fireplaces in bathrooms, a huge wine cellar, and their own ski lift.
8) Hearst Castle in Beverly Hills takes eighth place, coming in at $191 million. Newspaper magnate William Randolph Hurst’s trustees have control of this one, which is considered a heritage and tourist site… and that you’ll remember from the movie The Godfather.
7) The seventh most expensive domicile is Ellison Estate in Woodside, California. Larry Ellison, co-founder and chairman of Oracle lords over a 23 acre compound worth $200 million that took nine years to build.
6) Back to Kensington Palace Gardens for the sixth stunner. The one that surely must cause Abromovitch neighbor-envy belongs to Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal — his has 12 bedrooms, Turkish baths, an indoor pool and parking for 20, and is valued at $222 million.
5) American investor Ira Rennert rules the roost at the fifth most expensive abode, worth $248.5 million, called Four Fairfield Pond, in Sagaponack, New York. The 29 bedroom home has its own power plant and is ready for guests with plenty of sporting amenities and a 91 foot long formal dining room!
4) Fourth, Villa Leopola, was once the home of Belgian King Leopold’s Mistress (evicted after the King died in 1909). Brazilian philanthropist and widow Lily Safra now owns the $750 million waterside wonder in Cote D’Azure, France, which you may have seen featured in Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief.
3) Indian billionaire and owner of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambaris enjoys the third most expensive, with Antillia, his 27 story “home” with six underground parking levels. This one takes 600 staff to run, but it comes in worth $1 billion, so it must be a bargain.
2) The royal residence comes in second.
And ….
1) This house in Kensington, 17 Upper Phillimore Gardens, owned by Ukranian oligarch Elena Franchuk bests Buckingham by $30 million or so. It’s an ex-girl’s preparatory school with ten bedrooms, an underground swimming pool, sauna, cinema, and panic room (?!) that may not look like much from the outside, but has interiors that will leave you breathless.
A bonus! Now that you know about the world’s most expensive abodes, how about the most expensive celebrity home? Well, unless you’re counting the Queen… Oprah (Queen of Daytime TV) takes the tiara with her $85 million mansion.
