Yours for $500m: the world's most expensive home

Photo: McClean Design via Bloomberg

In 2012, the world balked at the spectacle of Florida's own Versailles being erected by a real estate tycoon. The 30-bedroom mansion, which sits on a 90,000 square-foot estate, is still unfinished, making it one of the most ostentatious homes of all time.

Now, though, Versailles has competition.

Down the road in California, another titan of real esate is being built. The size of this Los Angeles estate? 100,000 square feet.

The property, which is being constructed for a Hollywood producer, sits on a hillside overlooking the LA basin. It is not hard to imagine its owner, Nile Niami, doing the same: it has "almost every amenity available in the world", he told Bloomberg.

Indeed, the main residence alone reads like the wish list of a megalomaniacal Bond villain: it will have a 5,000 square-foot master bedroom, a garage big enough for 30 cars and even a private casino.  In addition, there will be a 45-seat IMAX cinema, a 180-foot infinity pool and - most mind-boggling of all - an entire room solely dedicated to jelly fish, including tanks on three walls and a light-changing ceiling.

As well as the 74,000 square-foot main home, there will also be three smaller properties on the estate.

In total, it will more than 20 months to complete construction. When completed, its asking price will be $500 million, which (if achieved) would make it the most expensive home in the world. To put that into perspective, the most expensive home on the US market at present is a $195 million mansion in Beverly Hills. The record in America is $147 million for a New York estate. In the UK, the most expensive is a London penthouse, which was sold for $221 million in 2011.

"It’s very similar to a palace," Niami said. "The house is about public functions rather than domestic living."