The United Arab Emirates is a collection of seven monarchies carved out of a tip of land bordering Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar. Those seven monarchies are Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Fukairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah, Umm Al Quwain and… Dubai.
Dubai is definitely the best-known of the seven monarchies to westerners. When westerners think of Dubai they probably picture a sandy metropolis dripping in oil wealth. And that's correct! In recent decades Dubai has invested hundreds of billions of dollars on projects they hope will diversify their tiny emirate away from oil and natural gas into a tourism and luxury living hub. Dubai has built dozens of five-star hotels and the world's tallest hotel, the Burj Khalifa. The Burj Khalifa is roughly twice as tall as Eiffel Tower and the Empire State Building.
One of Dubai's most ambitious projects is a series of artificial islands built just off the coast on the Persian Gulf. One of those artificial islands is called the Palm Jumeirah.
This is the Palm Jumeirah:
(Photo by KARIM SAHIB/AFP via Getty Images)
The Palm Jumeirah has thousands of residential homes, around 30 luxury hotels, a monorail system and seven malls. In terms of the hotels, Jumeirah has a Fairmont, a St. Regis, a Waldorf Astoria and, most famously, an Atlantis.
If you had the means, I would highly recommend purchasing one of Jumeirah's luxurious gated community villas. But you better act fast! Real estate of the island is on fire right now, with hundreds of millions of dollars flowing in from foreign investors.
And according to a recent Bloomberg report, one of those foreign investors is Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani.
Mukesh reportedly just paid $80 million for a beach-side estate on the island, and in doing so he set a residential real estate record for all of Dubai.
I spent an hour trying to find the exact villa that Mukesh just bought but couldn't identify with 100% certainty. I did find what I think is a very good comparable to give you an idea. The home in the following video is 11 bedrooms and 46,000 square-feet. The property Mukesh just bought is reportedly 30,000 square-feet with 10 bedrooms. The home in the video was listed for sale for $60 million. So somehow Mukesh paid $20 million more for a property that is 16,000 square feet smaller than what you're about to see. Mukesh's home must be extremely luxurious.
Ambani reportedly purchased the home for his youngest son Anant Ambani. That's according to two sources that are close to the covert deal, which hasn't been publicly confirmed by either Ambani or his company.
The $80 million purchase price is far from the only expenditure Ambani is taking on to acquire the property. There remain millions more to customize the estate and enhance its security features.
The primary Ambani residence will of course remain in Mumbai, at the 27-story skyscraper known as Antilia. But the man-made islands of Palm Jumeirah are a tailor-made paradise for wealthy families like the Ambanis, with not just luxury homes but various hotels, spas, restaurants, and nightclubs. Some 80 percent of the UAE's current residents are from other countries, with India reportedly being particularly well represented.
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