A temple. An ice cream parlour. A six-floor garage with space for 168 supercars. These are just some of the extraordinary features of the world’s most expensive private residence.
There’s luxury, and then there’s Antilia, a 400,000-square-foot palace towering 27 storeys over downtown Mumbai.
The residence of billionaire Mukesh Ambani and his family, the home is on Billionaire’s Row, known for some of the heftiest property prices in India.
It has Hollywood credentials too, as it was almost used on the set of Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster movie Tenet, starring Robert Pattinson. In the end, Antilia’s tight security measures meant filming was moved elsewhere.
The home also features nine high-speed lifts, a ballroom, a theatre seating fifty people, a swimming pool and spa, and even a health centre.
Perhaps the most outlandish detail of them all is a snow room that spits out snowflakes from the icy walls – a rare occurrence in Mumbai, where the lowest temperature ever recorded was a mere 7.4C in January 1962. The room is used by the family to cool down during the sweltering Indian summers.
The towering property was constructed between 2008 and 2010 by American architecture firm Perkins & Will at a cost of a cool $2 billion (£1,567,880,000.00).
How much would the mortgage repayments be on the Antilia?
Having been revalued in 2023, the Antilia is estimated to be worth more than double the original cost, now standing at a value of $4.6 billion (£3,606,273,348.20).
So, theoretically how much would the mortgage on a property of this value cost?
Assuming a 10% deposit, it would leave a mortgage debt of $18,000,000,00 (£14,124,792,54.60).
With a 4.5% interest rate and a repayment term of 25 years, you’re looking at total monthly payments at $10,001,080 (£78,479,54.46) per month – and a total repayment term of $3,000,324,060 (£2,354,386,384.35).
Despite the sprawling tower block, there are various Reddit threads dedicated to rumours that the family actually only occupy just one floor of the 27-story building, reports supposedly confirmed by Times of India.
‘All those floors and they only reside on 1? What’s the point then. Just build a homey two-three storey house. But hey, I’m not the billionaire,’ @imactuallyaghost3 said.
And, it can’t be ignored that the lavish property is in the same city that’s also home to one of the world’s largest slums. The Dharavi slum, featured in Slumdog Millionaire, is less than one square mile, but has an estimated population of around 1 million people living in poverty.
It was a point made by former chairman of the Tata Group, Ratan Tata: ‘The person who lives in there should be concerned about what he sees around him and asking how he can make a difference.
‘If he cannot, then it’s sad because this country needs people to allocate some of their enormous wealth to finding ways of mitigating the hardship that people have.’
Tata isn’t alone. Renowned Bollywood film director Prakash Jha similarly criticised the Ambanis for constructing such a lavish property.
The Antilia also now stands where the Currimbhoy Ebrahim Khoja orphanage once was – a site which formerly belonged to a charity run by the Waqf Board, a government body which deals with the acquisition and holding of property.
Founded in 1895, the orphanage operated for over 100 years before it was sold to Antilia Commercial Private Limited – a company owned by Antilia’s now owner.
What’s the most expensive home in the UK?
It might seem relatively cheap in comparison to Mumbai’s Antilia, but the most expensive home in the UK is a £250 million palace in Regent’s Park.
Known as The Holme, the property was actually up for sale in 2023 – and topped the previous UK record holder, a £210 million mansion not too far away in Hyde Park.
Built in 1818, the home measures 29,000 square feet, and has a whopping 40 bedrooms, eight garages, an underground swimming pool and a private tennis court.
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