1. Buckingham Palace
It was originally known as Buckingham House, the building at the core of today’s palace was a large townhouse built for the Duke of Buckingham. The Palace has 775 rooms, including 92 offices, 78 bathrooms, 52 bedrooms, and 19 staterooms. The largest room is the ballroom, which measures 36.6m long, 18m wide, and 13.5m high. The first public event held in the ballroom was a gala to celebrate the end of the Crimean War.
Buckingham Palace Garden is the largest private garden in London. The state rooms, used for official and state entertaining, are open to the public each year for most of August and September and on some days in winter and spring. The palace was designated a Grade I listed building in 1970. It has not only been a weekday home of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip but is also the London residence of the Duke of York and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh. It also has a post office, cinema, swimming pool, doctor’s surgery, and jeweler’s workshop.
2. Antilia, India
It is the residence of the Indian billionaire “Mukesh Ambani”. The skyscraper-mansion is one of the world’s largest and most elaborate private homes, at 27 stories, 173 meters (568 ft) tall, over 37,000 square meters (400,000 sq ft), and with amenities such as a 168-car garage, a ballroom, 9 high-speed elevators, a 50-seat theatre, terrace gardens, swimming pool, spa, health center, a temple, and a snow room that spits out snowflakes from the walls. It is also designed to withstand a magnitude 8 earthquake.
The building was designed by two US architecture firms Perkins & Will based in Chicago, and Hirsch Bedner Associates, based in Los Angeles. The interior design uses the shapes of the lotus and the sun. These two features are repeated throughout the building using crystals, marble, and mother-of-pearl. It is considered the world’s most expensive private residence, costing between US$1 and 2 billion to build.
3. Villa Leopolda
The Villa La Leopolda is a large detached villa in Villefranche-sur-Mer, in the Alpes-Maritimes department on the French Riviera. The villa is situated on 7.3 hectares (18 acres) of grounds. Villa La Leopolda in its current incarnation was designed and built from 1929 to 1931 by the American architect, Ogden Codman, Jr., on an estate once owned by King Leopold II of Belgium. During World War I, the villa was used as a military hospital.
The villa was used as the location of Lermontov’s villa in the 1948 film The Red Shoes. The house has always been a massive part of European history as it has a blend of royal history and a modern touch of masterful architecture and interior design. While the home’s interior hasn’t been viewed by many, it is known to have antique artworks that are rare in the world.
4. Palais Bulles
Palais Bulles is a large house in Théoule-sur-Mer, near Cannes, France, that was designed by the Hungarian architect “Antti Lovag”. It was built for the French industrialist Pierre Bernard and later bought by the fashion designer Pierre Cardin as a holiday home. The architect Antti Lovag hated straight lines as aggression against nature and designed the house as a form of play—spontaneous, joyful, and full of surprise.
The house comprises a reception hall, panoramic lounge, 500-seat open-air amphitheater, 10 bedrooms, various swimming pools, and waterfalls in extensive landscaped grounds. After the death of Pierre Cardin in December 2020, it has been suggested that the building be turned into a public venue for art expos.
5. Palazzo di Amore
Palazzo di Amore is a house in Beverly Hills, California. it was cited as being the most expensive residential complex in the United States, in November 2014. With 53,000 square feet of living space. It has 12 bedrooms including a 5,000-square-foot master suite; 25 bathrooms; a 15,000-square-foot entertainment center with a bowling alley. Villa Palazzo di Amore is crowned with some of the most extraordinary amenities you can find. The mansion is decorated in a classic style with rich textures of marble, polished and carved woods, vaulted ceilings embellished with frescoes, and sumptuous European furniture.