Got a bit of spare change lying around? Rustle up a few (hundred thousand) friends and you could have a timeshare in Villa Les Cedres, the most expensive house in the world.
The 19th-century manor house was built in 1830 in the South of France on the coast of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat on 35 acres of land. The property comprises 14 bedrooms, a library, several luxurious sitting rooms, all on a palatial 18,000 square foot floor plan, according to Bloomberg.
Its lavish gardens are dotted with 14,000 species of plants, 25 greenhouses, an Olympic-size swimming pool and hundreds of olive trees — it was once the grounds of an olive farm — and previous owners included Belgian King Leopold II and the Davide Campari-Milano group, the Italian conglomerate that produces Campari, among other spirits.
But today it’s all for sale and could be yours for the low, low price of $410. Million dollars.
What a bargain when you consider what you’re buying into: One of the most exclusive neighborhoods in the world. Forget the Upper East Side or London’s lush Kensington Park. We’re talking serious, super-yacht money here on the French Riviera. “A sunny place for shady people,” as author Somerset Maugham once described it.
If you purchased the Villa Les Cedres you’d be rubbing shoulders with neighbors Andrew Lloyd Weber and Paul Allen, the billionaire Microsoft co-founder. Other residents nearby — just a quick helicopter ride away — include Bono, Mel Gibson, Tina Turner and Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.
So who might be in the market for a 14-bedroom bolthole in the most exclusive part of France? The Beckhams, for a start, have earned the chance to put their feet up on impeccably-upholstered sofas. (And we know they love the area, since they have been frequent guests of Elton John, who has a residence in nearby Cote D’Azur.)
Or Oprah? She has a $130 million property portfolio. Why not add $410 million to it in one fell swoop? For 19-year-old Alexandra Andresen, the world’s youngest billionaire and heir to a Norwegian tobacco fortune, purchasing the villa would be pocket change. Maybe she and her 22-year-old sister Katharina could go halves. What an excellent bachelorette pad Villa les Cedres would make.
By: Hannah-Rose Yee