World’s most expensive house built in Mumbai

Vanity Fair has the first pictures of the inside of what is believed to be the world’s most expensive house.

Built by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, and named Antilia, after a mythical island, the 27-storey building towers over swanky Altamount Road in Mumbai and is said to have cost $1Billion.

“This is the first time I am talking about my home,” says Mr Ambani’s wife, Nita, in an interview published in the June issue of Vanity Fair magazine.

“There have been exaggerated reports in the media about it, I must say,” she adds.

Much of the media speculation has centered on whether the family were actually living in the property.

Some newspaper reports suggested they had decided not to move in because the vastu shastra (an Indian form of architecture, akin to feng shui) on the building was not spiritually correct.

In the interview, conducted in November, Mrs Ambani confirms they took up residence last September.

A photo published of one of the rooms shows floor-to-ceiling windows, and a seating arrangement which resembles a five-star hotel lobby. “It’s a modern home with an Indian heart,” says Mrs Ambani of her house.

Antilia is 27 stories high, but as Mr Reginato writes, many of the floors are double or triple height, so the building rises to 570 feet, equivalent to a 40-storey building.

It also has a mutli-storied garage, a ballroom, a spa, a theater, guest suites and a number of terraced gardens, he writes.

The design, she says, is based on the lotus and the sun, and is decorated using rare wood, marble, mother-of-pearl and crystal, crafted by Indian artisans.

As with many Indian households, it also has a Hindu prayer room, “getting my temple right was so important,” she said.

But despite this, the house’s construction has attracted some criticism from some who say it is far too grand for a city like Mumbai, where millions of people live in slums, and hundreds of thousands don’t have a roof over their head.

View more at Vanity Fair.