Editor’s note: This article was first published in March 2011, and describes Mukesh Ambani as the ninth-richest man on the Forbes list of 2011. His ranking has changed since.
Until recently, the world’s most expensive house belonged to Bill Gates (Microsoft), whose property was valued at more than $5 billion. Well, these days that’s practically “poverty” compared with the home of the ninth-richest man on the Forbes list, Mukesh Ambani.
In the heart of south Mumbai stands Antilia Tower, a property, to put it mildly, valued at $27 billion according to Artefacto Magazine. The “features” of this house-cum-building are:
- 173 meters tall.
- 37,000 square meters spread over 27 floors.
- 3 floors of hanging gardens.
- A floor given over to a gym.
- A ballroom.
- A 50-seat cinema.
- 3 helipads.
- 3 swimming pools.
- 9 elevators.
- Parking for 160 vehicles.
- A domestic staff of 600.
A tremendous home, and a tremendous irony when you consider that it looks out over a horizon of misery, where hundreds of thousands of people live without electricity, water or food, in the saddest and most absolute poverty, while the house’s electricity bill usually comes to $158,000. Oh well, that’s life.
Featured image: DesiBoy101, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
