Later this month, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani will invite a few friends over for a housewarming.
There’s plenty of parking at Ambani’s new digs, which he’s named Antilia. Six storeys worth. Enough for 168 cars. If guests need help at the door, one of the permanent staff of 600 will be able to help. The only trouble might be getting lost inside.
Antilia may be the world’s most valuable home – with an estimated sale price of $1 billion.
At 27 storeys, it towers over Mumbai. Since each Antilia storey is at least twice a normal floor, the home is equivalent to a 60-storey building. It’s about the size of Toronto’s Royal Bank Plaza, on the corner of Yonge and Front Sts.
According to Forbes, Ambani, the principal of Reliance Industries, is the fourth-richest man on Earth. The 53-year-old’s fortune is estimated at $18 billion (U.S.).
Once thought of as a shy, reclusive man, he seems to have changed tack slightly. Antilia literally screams wealth from the Mumbai skyline. Critics have pointed out that from the roof-top helipad (all three of them), you get a panoramic view of the city’s sprawling slums.
Overall, the building contains 37,000 square metres of floor space – roughly equivalent to 300 average Canadian homes.
The building resembles a steel-and-glass stack of Lego, with interrupted walls and hanging gardens strewn throughout. It includes a two-storey health centre, six storeys of family residences to house Ambani, his wife, two children and his mother and an entire floor dedicated to servicing of Ambani’s fleet of automobiles.
The usual billionaire amenities – 50-seat home theatre, indoor swimming pool and dance studio – are also included.
Antilia did not cost Ambani a billion dollars. He purchased the land in 2002. The construction costs are estimated at $70 million.
But in Mumbai’s exploding real estate market, the Ambani home has been valued at 15 times its building cost.
Ambani and family must be very much looking forward to the chance to spread out. For the last few years, they’ve been living all jumbled up in a converted 14-storey apartment building.
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