Mukesh Ambani, the fifth richest man in the world and head of the Mumbai based petrochemical giant Reliance Industries is estimated to be worth some where in the region of $43 billion. He is also the owner to-be of a 27-story skyscraper in downtown Mumbai that is to cost him colossal $2 billion!

When you’ve got so much money you have to come up with ideas on how to spend it. Exactly this happened while his wife was staying in the Mandarin Oriental in New York, back in 2005. Nita Ambani was so impressed with the interior Asian style decor that she wanted something similar for her to live in.

Her inquiries about the designer soon led to the next step; drawing up plans done with expertise by architecture firm Perkins & Will and Hirsch Bedner Associates, the designers behind the Mandarin Oriental.

What resulted from that is the world’s largest and most expensive home ever. We have covered this in a past post but wanted to deliver some updated information. Every storey Antilla’s skyscraper home will be built to a different specification. The vast variation of materials to be used in it’s build has tremendously added to its overall cost.

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We thought we’d share this video; it’s an exclusive interview with Tiger Woods about his investments outside of the golf course. He is a co-investor in a soon to be constructed $1.3 billion exclusive private golf residential community called Albany Golf & Beach Club in the Caribbean island, Bahamas.

He also talks about the Dubai property market & Tiger Woods Dubai, the first Tiger Woods-designed golf course and resort to be located in Dubailand.

Although he did not invest early, he is owns Google shares and is bent on holding.

He finally clarifies that he did not buy a $65 million New York, Hamptons seaside estate as this article suggests.

^{Sandbanks, a dune off the coast of Poole in Dorset England has the fourth highest land value, by area, in the world}

Every now and then, we come across something that makes us wonder as to the sanity of the property market and behaviour of some estate agents.

A small dune in Dorset recently hit the news as being the fourth most expensive place to buy a property in the World with average property prices at £850 per square foot. Correct, the world. More expensive than Tokyo or Paris. A dune. In Dorset.

Putting this in context of global property prices; Prime Central London properties currently average at about £1,300 per-square-foot; in Upper Manhattan, New York £950 per square foot; in Moscow about £900 per square foot, in Sandbanks, Dorset £850 per square foot, in Paris £800 per square foot & in Hong Kong £785 per square foot.

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The priciest piece of property in Alicante, the “Tower King Jaume 1,” a villa 5 kilometers from the town has just been placed on the market.

Boasting only two bedroom suites the price came as a bit of a surprise to us - €10,500,000 – That is correct, over ten million euros for a two-bedroom villa.

Despite the small number of bedrooms, the villa is huge – over 1,100 square meters built and a 4,200 plot. Also included is a heated pool, private library, private pub, gymnasium and an aviary, along with a guest house, staff quarters and spectacular gardens.

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Fancy your own private island in Fiji? Now’s your chance. New Zealand estate agents, Bayleys Realty Group have three to choose from – all at less than £3 million each. Two of the Islands are in Fiji, the third in Marlborough sounds, NZ. Toberua Island sits two kilometres east of Fiji’s main island of Viti Levu, comes with 1.62ha of land and a 15-bure resort operation that has attracted a number of celebrity visitors recently. The island, with resort, is for sale for $3.9 million plus 12.5 per cent Fijian value added tax.

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Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have bought their own Island in “The World,” Dubai’s ultra-exclusive offshore development. Dubai-based celebrity and society web site Ahlanlive reported that the film stars have bought an island with a view to turning it into a showpiece for environmental issues with the hope that it will encourage people to live a “greener life,” – no comment.

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Record prices are still being achieved in the luxury condominium market all round the world. This is a selection in no particular order. Some have yet to be build and have sold purely on spec.

The Marq, Singapore.

The price of a condo in Singapore crossed the $5,000 per square foot this year when a single unit sold for $31 million. The first phase of the “invitation only” release all sold within a few weeks of release. Condos in The Marq cover an entire floor and include a 15 meter lap pool with every unit. No release date has been set yet for the next phase of the development. The bulk of the purchasers are said to be foreign.

The Time Warner Center, NYC.

In 2003, the Time Warner building in Manhattan broke all existing US records, selling a single condominium for $45 million – unfinished. Time Warner Center is one of the largest, most expensive multi-use developments constructed in New York City. This building houses the world headquarters of a major corporation; 211,00 square feet of additional office space; three jazz performance halls; almost 200 luxury condominiums; a high-end retail mall “The Palladium”; and a 251-room, five star Mandarin Oriental Hotel. Although rumors of an agreed sale of the Pierre’s penthouse at over $50 million may soon dwarf this.

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Donald Trump

No one could accuse Mr. Trump of not being prepared to blow his own horn, in fact, he even took a stand against Forbes magazine when they included him on their Forbes 400, claiming that Forbes had underestimated his wealth by $4 billion. We hesitate to call it class, but it has a certain flair. Despite nearly losing his shirt in the 1990’s real estate crash, “The Donald,” managed number 117 of this years Forbes 400 with an estimated wealth of $3 billion, although according to the man himself, “I’m worth $7 billion.”

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Mukesh Ambani, the Indian magnate, came in for some flack recently as work started on his 173 meter tall, 27 storey, personal high rise in Mumbai.

No one ever said that having a lot of money assured you of good taste as well, and the only criticism I can offer is that maybe it wasn’t in the best possible taste to build this monument to wealth creation slap bang in a city littered with beggars, lepers and homeless people. I mean, for goodness’ sake, a man should be able to spend his money how he sees fit.

Rich people have built personal houses worth the equivalent of a small country’s income before, but most of them had the good sense to do it out of sight of the hoi poloi.

This particular palace will come complete with 6 floors for parking, 3 helipads, 1600 full time staff and views over the Arabian sea.

Work on “Antilla,” is expected to be completed late 2008. Whether the finished product will be as attractive as the name suggests, remains to be seen. Antilla is a mythical island said to lie in the ocean west of Spain.

In the meantime, after exhaustive research I have collected some photos and information on other “most expensive” houses around the world that the owner’s sensibly built in slightly more remote locations. They are in no particular order.

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London’s ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) are driving house prices up the roof. These 4000 UHNWIs who are predominantly bankers, lawyers, traders, 23 billionaires and super wealthy non-domiciled foreigners have taken London property prices to yet another level.

Four Hyde Park facing penthouse apartments located on the exclusive address of Number One Hyde Park are reported to have been sold at an off plan sale price for a record £84m (US$164m) each.

Bowoter House before demolition

The Lord Rogers-designed penthouse apartments will each boast a staggering 20,000sq ft in floor space and would be amongst 86 other apartments that will span over four glass and red weathered steel apartment blocks replacing the now demolished hideous 16-storey 1950s building - Bowater House. The cheapest apartments are still said to command £4m (US$7.9m) each, making the development the most expensive dwellings ever sold in London at a shocking £4,200 (US$8,200) per square foot.

Purchasers including Arab princes and Russian oligarchs need to make an up front 20% deposit to secure the very highly demanded apartments that are due to be completed in 2010.

The project’s developers, Project Grande have contracted both interior design and development management to Luxury property developers – Candy & Candy. The two brothers from Surrey, domiciled in Monaco behind the Candy & Candy, Nick and Christian Candy, currently hold the record for most expensive flat in London, which is a £27 (US$53m) million luxury Chelsea pad.

While only the four penthouse flats would feature bullet proof windows, the entire development will have as standard an SAS developed security system, “panic rooms”, specially purified air conditioners and each complex will have a spa, squash court and private wine-tasting facility. Exclusive concierge service will be provided by the Mandarin Oriental hotel through a tunnel that will link the hotel and the development.

This record asking price is a reflection of the London property market which has out performed the UK market this year. In central London, the area that has experienced the most rapid growth, house prices have risen by 20 per cent in 2007 alone as compared to a 0.5 percent increase in London as a whole where prices average £260,140 (US$508,000).

What do you think about the London property market? Is it sustainable? Do you think the interest rate hikes will help slow growth down a bit? Or is a crash eminent?