$204 million .. the most expensive house for sale in Dubai

A mansion similar to Versailles has been put up for sale in Dubai for 750 million dirhams ($204 million), making it the most expensive home on the market in the city's bustling luxury estates.

House discriminators

  The house is in the sought after area of Emirates Hills, it is set on 60,000 sq ft. The interior space is only five bedrooms: the main bedroom is 4,000 sq ft, which is larger than most homes.

The ground floor contains the dining and entertainment rooms. Other amenities include a 15-car garage, 19 bathrooms, indoor and outdoor pools, two domes, an 80,000-liter (21,000-gallon) reef aquarium, power substation and panic rooms. It is located on 70,000 square feet in a gated community overlooking a golf course.

  Construction duration

The property - dubbed "The Marble Palace" by the agents - was built using an estimated Dh80m to Dh100m of marble from countries including Italy.

  Construction took nearly 12 years and was completed in 2018, according to Luxhabitat Sotheby's International Realty, which sells the property. The tasks involved applying 700,000 sheets of gold leaf by 70 skilled workers toiling over nine months, the brokerage says. The house is currently decorated with about 400 items from the owner's personal art collection, primarily 19th- and 20th-century statues and paintings; The owner is willing to negotiate about including the furnishings in the purchase.

Dubai real estate market

Dubai's real estate market has been on a tear since late 2020, a rally that has lasted far longer than other global property booms during the Covid-19 pandemic.

  The rally is partly a correction after the market had been declining for about six years. Dubai's handling of the pandemic enabled the city to reopen quickly, attracting bankers who had relocated from places like Singapore or Hong Kong.

The world's wealthy have snapped up property as a way to hide their money in an uncertain global economy. The influx of Russians after Russia's invasion of Ukraine helped sustain the prosperity.

Mega Deals

Several recent mega deals include the Dh125 million sale of an empty beachfront plot and the purchase of a penthouse on the Arabian Gulf for Dh420 million. However, the price per square foot of the Marble Palace - Dh12,500 - is more than double what other properties in Emirates Hills have fetched. According to real estate records in Dubai, the previous most expensive home sale in the neighborhood was 210 million dirhams, in August 2022.

There's only one listing in the city that rivals this mansion: A planned penthouse in a development called Bugatti by Binghatti is also listed for Dh750 million but has yet to be built.

(In general, move-in-ready properties command higher prices than off-plan ones.) This apartment—or "sky palace," as the developer calls it—will come with a car elevator and is slated to hit the market in about three years.

Luxhabitat Sotheby’s broker Kunal Singh says, well aware that buyers will either love it or hate it.

Singh estimates that there are only five to 10 potential buyers in the world who are wealthy enough — and interested in its looks — to purchase a marble mansion.

Singh said two people have seen the house in the past three weeks. One of them, a Russian who had a representative view the property, would have to figure out how to move that amount of money. The second is an Indian client who already owns three properties in Emirates Hills; His wife is on the fence, Singh says, leaning toward something more modern.