Saudi prince’s $390m chateau is the world’s most expensive home

In his home country he is leading an austerity drive but the Saudi Crown Prince has bought the world’s most expensive house.

The chateau was originally built by a newphew of Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. Picture: Reuters.

In his home country he is leading an austerity drive, but abroad he has been identified in the past year as the buyer of a US$500 million yacht and a Leonardo da Vinci painting for US$450 million. The high-roller spending habits of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia are now said to have spread to France.

According to research by The New York Times, he is the ultimate owner - through a series of shell companies - of the world’s most expensive house, a AU$390m Louis XIV-style palace near Versailles.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Picture: AP.

Since becoming crown prince in June, he has been determined to transform the image of his country, liberalising its social codes to allow women to drive and to get jobs more easily. He has also started economic reforms based on the example of Margaret Thatcher, whom he is said to admire. Those reforms include removing subsidies, privatising industry and cutting the state budget.

The chateau is the most expensive n the world. Picture: AP.

The austerity programme does not seem to have affected his personal spending habits, however. Though the emirate of Abu Dhabi has claimed that a Saudi associate of the royal family bought Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi for the new Louvre gallery and not for the crown prince, no one has denied that the yacht is his. The New York Times quotes royal advisers admitting that he bought the chateau two years ago. It was built by Emad Khashoggi, the nephew of the Saudi arms dealer, Adnan Khashoggi, six years ago and features squash courts, a cinema, frescoes in the style of the Sistine Chapel and a moat with an underground viewing chamber.

The prince is also cracking down on corruption. Sabih al-Masri, a Palestinian banker with Saudi citizenship, was detained on a visit to Riyadh at the weekend, but was released after questioning.

The Times