Showcasing the world’s most expensive homes, these stunning homes are amongst the world’s most exclusive luxury properties but with the credit crunch in full swing, selling these homes might prove a little difficult! Check out these pads (in no particular order).

Southhampton, Village Oceanfront Sanctuary New York – $80m

The interior space of this 13,500 square feet home runs across four stories and contains nine bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, four powder rooms and a movie theatre.The home is situated between a pond and the ocean giving it a unique position, and there is 1,000 feet of shore front and 1,000 feet of pond front.

Villa La Leopolda – $500m

Formerly the home of Bill Gates, but now belonging to really rather rich Roman Abramovich, the Villa La Leopolda in Nice, France would set you back roughly £250,000,000 ($1/2 a billion). Its 10 acres of lush, garden-filled grounds require an astounding 50 gardeners to look after it along with the best home insurance that money can buy. Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia’s richest man had to pull out on the much reported deal to purchase Villa Leopolda, a $750 million estate in Côte d’Azur, the South of France after seeing a good portion of his amassed fortune lost in the current global recession.

The much reported sale was widely speculated over and now it seems that all the excitement has been for nothing. But the saga continues as the current owners of the villa simply refuse to hand Prokhorov back his initial deposit of €44 million. Even though his lawyers are seeking a refund, they might be out of luck since the French law states that purchasers lose their deposits if they pull out after the sales agreement has been signed.

Since having set new property records with this deal last summer, the French Riviera went nuts with the news leaving many property owners excited at the prospects of selling their own nearby homes.

However, much has changed since then and the latest development in the Villa Leopolda story clearly indicate that even billionaires suffer from the current financial situation, leaving them with millions of dollars in losses.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the wealth magnate denies all the stories as gossip saying that Prokhorov is refusing to do any business unless the French authorities apologizes to him for accusing him of procuring prostitutes for a party in 2007.



Ira Rennert House, New York – $170m

The billionaire found of the Renco Group, Ira Rennert, owns a place in Sagaponack, New York, and at 63 acres of grounds, is considered by many to be the largest residential compound in the whole of America.

The house itself has 29 bedrooms, 39 bathrooms, as well as the usual gigantic dining room, sport courts and bowling alley and contents insurance to cover it all. The property is valued at roughly $170,000,000-180,000,000.

Updown Court, Surrey, England – $140m

With neighbours like Elton John and the Queen of England, Updown Court in Surrey is going to be a rather decadent household. Launched with a price of £70,000,000 (roughly $140,000,000). Containing 24 bedrooms, each with a marble en-suite bathroom, and an underground garage, the property is estimated to cost around £250,000 ($500,000) a month to run, not to mention the cost of the house insurance!





Donald Trump House, Florida – $250m

Donald Trump owns this 18-bedroom waterfront palace, which is listed as costing £125,000,000.



Situated in Florida, Trump says it’s location in Palm Beach is “the richest community in the world” and it doesn’t seem like he’s joking! We also doubt that he’s one to settle for cheap building insurance, either!



Fleur de Lys in Beverly Hills, California – $125m

This $125 million estate was modelled after Louis XIV’s palace at Versailles, France. It encompasses 45,000 square feet and took five years to build in all. It all came to fruition when Suzanne Saperstein accumulated five acres in the 1990s. What was once a dream became a reality and today Fleur de Lys features a 50-seat screening room, an nine care auto garage with a treasured collection of automobiles and a library filled with first-edition books.

Jacobean Manor, Greenwich, Connecticut – $90m

The manor sits proudly on 40 acres of rolling green hills, broken only by lawns and meadows to provide ample privacy for the owners. The 14 bedrooms and 13 bathrooms are spread over 21,897 square feet. Features such as marble floors, vaulted ceilings, limestone walls, bay windows and wood panelling impress the ficklest of visitor. There is also a 52-foot long indoor swimming pool. Ah yes, the manor is priced at a hefty $90 million. It is advertised on LuxuryRealEstate.com

Tranquility” Lake Tahoe, Nevada – $100m

Situated on the tax-free side of Nevada’s Lake Tahoe, this 210-acre property is owned by Joel Horowitz, the co-founder of fashion label Tommy Hilfiger. He built the property from scratch.



The house is made up of 20,000 square feet of living space and modelled after a northern European mountain home. It also has a 3,500-bottle wine cellar, an indoor swimming pool and atrium, as well as a 19-seat movie theatre, ensuring constant entertainment, even if snowed in. It is worth $100 million.

Eurasia Estate, Moscow, Russia – $100m

No list is complete without a bit of Russian flavour. This property consists of an 11,700-square-foot manor house, as well as two 4,000-square-foot guest houses and a massive 91,000-square-foot recreation centre that features a pool, Turkish and Russian baths, a gym, sauna and lounges. Eurasia is worth $100 million.



Hillandale, Stamford, Connecticut – $95m

You will be forgiven to think you are looking at an English country manor when you see Hillandale. With a stone construction, hedged and manicured gardens, a grassy tennis court and distinctive chimneys, this 20,000-square-foot residence has eight bedrooms and 10 bathrooms.



Hillandale is so big that the property straddles the New York-Connecticut border. The grounds also include four guest and staff residences and two barns, all connected by five miles of private roads. The price tag is $95 million.



BootJack Ranch, Pagosa Springs, Colorado – $88m

The ranch includes a massive 3,100 acres of land. This luxury property is much more than a working ranch. The main house alone is 13,800 square feet and has four bedrooms and four bathrooms. Further, outlying guest cabins and lodges can host up to 50 people and bring the total interior space up to 77,000 square feet. In addition, there’s a 12,000-square-foot spa and aquatic centre. Just the right thing to soak your weary feet at the end of a long working day. That is if you can part with $88 million.



And Finally, last but certainly not least…..

Antilla Mumbai ($1 Billion) – the world’s most expensive home

Antilla Mumbai is the most expensive house in the world costing $1 Billion. A custom-build 27 story towering mansion, Antilla in Mumbai is the home of the world’s 5th richest man called Mukesh Ambani, head of Indian petro-chemical giant Reliance Industries, which is India’s most valuable firm by market capitalisation.

1 Billion dollars! If you could get someone to make the loan at current standard (US) jumbo mortgage rates, the monthly payment on a 30-year loan would be about 12.5 million dollars. Of course, a $2 billion loan is not going to go into the standard mortgage market, even for jumbo loans. A spate of green skyscrapers have shot up in the last few years, as people learn that buildings account for more CO2 emissions than any other single source. At the same time, we’ve seen a rise in greenwashing by companies recognizing the market value of green and making false claims to fit the category. In an exemplary meeting of these two trends, we have just discovered a building in progress in Mumbai that calls itself the greenest of all the buildings in the Maximum City of 13 million people. If ever there were a literal interpretation of a deceptive green façade, this is it. Renderings of the 27-story Antilla building depict a highrise that couldn’t be greener. It’s covered in foliage, with living walls enclosing all four sides, hanging gardens and green rooftop. Just a few days ago, the architects boasted about its environmental features – primarily that the walls of plants will increase green space and combat urban heat island effect. But look behind the green façade, and as far as we can tell, there’s nothing else sustainable about the materials or construction. Architecture firm Perkins + Will doesn’t include the project on their site, but this week mentioned no other green features besides the literal green. The Antilla is being built for Reliance Industries Ltd, India’s largest private sector enterprise (with revenues exceeding $25 billion), and the Ambani family, who own the company. Reliance is a petrochemical corporation whose earnings come from exploring, producing, refining and marketing oil and gas. They are the world’s largest producer of polyester fiber, and a runner-up for several others. The building will stand on Mumbai’s Altamount Road, where real estate costs as much as $1800/square foot. Although Mumbai is the densest city in the world, with almost 30,000 people per square kilometer, this 500+ foot tall building will only be 27 floors where normally a building of this height would be 60, so that each floor can have exceptionally high ceilings, and 35,000 square feet of the entire building area will be the residential quarters of the Ambani’s. More Antilla Mumbai Facts

3 helipads on top. Mumbai corporation has not given permission for making this operational yet. Hanging gardens within the structure Swimming pool within the structure A two storey Health centre Parking space for 168 cars (6 floors). I initially thought that meant there will be a mini office in the building but apparently that is not the case. All these cars will belong to Mukesh Ambani! Just in case you are interested, he drives a 5 crore Maybach now. A floor exclusively for servicing these automobiles within the building. A floor for Home theatre – sitting capacity of 50

Most absurd of all, the house will have a staff of 600 (sic) to do the maintenance activities. That gives a ratio of 1:100 for people living in the house and those who are paid to take care of it. The six lucky ones are the man himself, his wife, his 3 children and his mother Kokilaben. The family will be moving in from their old home ‘Sea Wind’ which was a 14 floor building at Cuffe Parade.