Inside Dubai’s most expensive home: the US$204 million ‘Marble Mansion’ is a Versailles-style palace in the ‘UAE’s Beverly Hills’ that ‘only 10 people in the world can afford’

The home in the desirable Emirates Hills neighbourhood has 60,000 square feet of indoor space though only five bedrooms – and at 4,000 square feet, the primary bedroom is bigger than most homes.

Building the Marble Palace

Construction of the property – nicknamed the “Marble Palace” by the selling agents – took nearly 12 years and was completed in 2018, according to Luxhabitat Sotheby’s International Realty. And it was built using an estimated more than US$20 million marble Italian stone. The owner built the home and lives in it by himself following a divorce.

Some 700,000 sheets of gold leaf were applied by 70 skilled workers, toiling more than nine months, the brokerage says. The home is currently decorated with about 400 pieces from the owner’s personal art collection – primarily 19th century and 20th century statues and paintings – and, if that’s your bag, the owner is prepared to negotiate about including them and furnishings in the purchase.

The owner, a local property developer, declined to be named.

“It’s not everybody’s taste or style,” Luxhabitat Sotheby’s broker Kunal Singh says, well aware that buyers will either love it or hate it.

The ground floor has rooms for dining and entertaining. Other amenities include a 15-car garage, 19 bathrooms, indoor and outdoor pools, two domes, an 80,000-litre coral reef aquarium, a power substation and panic rooms. It sits on a 70,000 sq ft lot in a gated community overlooking a golf course. There are 12 staff rooms with space for up to 25, and two bank vaults

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