While some of the planet's richest people were born into fabulous wealth and privilege, others had far more humble beginnings. With this in mind, we reveal the properties where nine big-name billionaires spent their formative years.
Click or scroll to look back at where it all began, from a German prince's magnificent palace to Kim Kardashian's Beverly Hills home...
As childhoods go, Kim Kardashian's was nothing short of idyllic.
Born on 21 October 1980, the reality star – who is worth a cool $1.2 billion (£885m) as of 2025 – was raised in a dreamy six-bedroom, eight-bathroom mansion on Tower Lane, an ultra-exclusive private cul-de-sac in the heart of Beverly Hills.
Kim lived here with big sister Kourtney and younger siblings Khloé and Rob.
All four were spoiled rotten by their parents Robert and Kris Kardashian, who lavished their kids with pretty much anything they wanted – including a palatial mansion.
Pictured here (right) with older sister Kourtney, Kim's luxurious childhood home boasted everything from a tennis court to a duck-shaped pool and a matching Jacuzzi in the form of an egg.
These white cabinets and matching tiles were very much in keeping with the era's trend for upmarket tropical decor.
Young Kim and Kourtney posed here with their father, likely in the kitchen of their home. Note the dark wood shaker-style cabinets fashionable in the 1980s and 1990s.
Kim's happy home life ended abruptly in 1989 when Kris had an affair with soccer player Todd Waterman, prompting Robert to file for divorce.
Kim moved away with her mother and siblings but visited on a regular basis until her dad put the 6,527-square-foot (606sqm) property on the market in 1994. It sold for $2.2 million – that's about $4.7 million (£3.5m) today.
This old photo of Kim and Rob as youngsters gives us a glimpse of flamboyant 90s interior style.
Fast-forward to November 2019 and Kim surprised 'momager' Kris on her 64th birthday with a trip down memory lane by hiring out the beloved house for an intimate lunch, even going as far as recreating Kris' "ridiculous wallpaper and kitchen set” on the table settings (right) and renting out every single car her parents owned.
Kris has described the home as “her heart” and misses living there to this day.
Donald Trump, America's only billionaire president, grew up in Queens, New York.
With an estimated net worth of $5.2 billion (£3.8bn) as of 2025, he's used to the finer things in life – including a multi-billion dollar property portfolio, not to mention a White House address.
However, his childhood home was slightly more humble...
Young Donald lived in this picture-perfect Mock Tudor cottage for the first four years of his life.
The house was built in 1940 by the future POTUS' real estate developer father Fred and is located in the upscale Jamaica Estates area of Queens.
Born on 14 June 1946, young Trump's formative years were spent in the characterful home with his parents and four siblings.
While relatively modest when compared to some billionaires' first homes, the 2,500 square feet (232sqm) cottage gave Donald a comfortable start to life.
The brick, stucco and half-timbered house has a total of five bathrooms and four-and-a-half bathrooms, a capacious living and dining room, as well as a library.
The house was listed in 2016, selling the following year for the inflated price of $2.1 million (£1.6m), the then-owner clearly capitalising on Trump's fame, having bought the property a year earlier for $1.4 million (£1m).
Despite its connection to the Trump dynasty, the owner had a hard time offloading the property.
After attempting to sell it at auction, they started a GoFundMe to raise $3 million (£2.1m) from Trump fans to buy the house as a gift for the POTUS, but only managed to raise a few thousand dollars.
After falling into disrepair and becoming infested with 30 feral cats, the home eventually sold in March 2025 for $835,000 (£618k) – 40% less than its 2017 sale price.
Investing legend Warren Buffett was born on 30 August 1930 into a middle-class family in Omaha, Nebraska, the city he has called home ever since.
Buffett has an estimated fortune of $158 billion (£117bn) as of 2025, but he spent the first few years of his life in this one-and-a-half-storey Craftsman-style bungalow on Barker Avenue.
Warren's parents, future Congressman Howard and Leila Buffett, purchased this home not long after their wedding in 1925.
Like many Midwestern homes of the era, the charming clapboard property was built using a Sears kit.
The second of three children, the young Warren showed early entrepreneurial promise, selling chewing gum and Coca-Cola door-to-door when he was just six years old.
At 11, he got a job delivering newspapers before school, and in 1941, he invested his earnings in the stock market, buying three shares for himself and three for his sister. He made a slight profit – and the rest is history!
As for the Buffett family, they eventually moved to Washington DC where Howard forged his political career.
While their DC home had five bedrooms and a much larger kitchen than the one they'd left behind (pictured), the former Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO has never been one for extravagance and excess.
Despite his enormous net worth, he lives in a relatively modest dwelling just a mile from his first home.
The three-bedroom home was listed via eBay in 2011, selling for $150,000 (around $213k/£158k today). The buyer then donated it to Girls Inc. of Omaha, a charity that supports girls and young women reach their full potential.
Sponsored by Girls Inc.,19-year-old Morgan Mayers moved into Buffett's former home with her young son that same year, as reported by KETV NewsWatch7.
Upon hearing Morgan lived in the billionaire's former home, many joked she should "look in the vents for money" and "see if something's stashed somewhere".
Born on 14 May 1984, Facebook co-founder, chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg grew up in a fairly ordinary mid-century property in Dobbs Ferry, a sleepy town in Westchester County, New York.
Worth around $223 billion (£166bn) in 2025, Zuckerberg is never far from the top of the world's rich list. Intriguingly, his childhood home held hints of the tech whizz he'd later become...
The 1,226-square-foot (114sqm) family home stands on a quiet residential street 20 minutes or so north of Manhattan.
Given the incredible fortune their son would go on to make, the Zuckerberg's parents Edward and Karen could have easily retired and decamped to a lavish mansion.
However, they remained in their Dobbs Ferry home until selling it for $900,000 in 2013 – that's about $1.2 million (£891k) today.
Karen and Edward bought the house in 1981 and raised Mark there, along with his three sisters.
Mark moved out of the family home when he left for Harvard in 2002, before dropping out in 2004 and moving into a four-bedroom Palo Alto rental, where the Facebook team lived and worked.
But back to the family home...
Dentist Edward maintained his practice here, in an office attached to the house, as we can see from the signs directing patients around the right side of the property.
Edward was an early adopter of emerging technologies. Back in 1996, when the technology was in its infancy, he had high-speed internet installed in his home and adjacent business. The addition enabled his son to begin tinkering with tech.
Zuckerberg junior invented and installed a pre-AOL instant-messaging service so the family could quickly and easily communicate between the home and office.
Although on a slope, this green lawn and its surrounding trees must have been a lovely place for the Zuckerberg kids to play when Mark took a break from his computer screen.
These days, Karen and Esward appear to live in Cupertino, California – a stone's throw from their son and grandchildren in Palo Alto.
Born on 28 October 1955, Microsoft founder Bill Gates is worth $116 billion (£86bn) as of 2025 and famously lives in Xanadu 2.0, his self-designed $127 million (£94m) home in Medina, Washington.
However, his childhood home looks fit for a millionaire at the very least...
He spent much of his childhood in this beautiful mid-century property in the tranquil Laurelhurst neighbourhood of Seattle.
Built in 1964, it was bought a year later by the Microsoft co-founder's father Bill Sr, who lived in the four-bedroom property until his death in 2020 at the ripe old age of 94.
Several members of the Gates family ended up moving to Laurelhurst; there's even a road there named after Bill Jr's mother Mary, who passed away in 1994.
A prodigy from the start, Gates was just 13 when he wrote his first software program.
His first home, in Sand Point, was severely damaged by the area's first recorded tornado, which struck in 1962 when Bill Jr was seven years old – the same year this photo was taken.
The twister tossed the carport over the house, ripping off parts of the roof before smashing into a neighbouring home, according to The Seattle Times.
The 3,860-square-foot (358sqm) home sold in 2021 for $2.6 million (£1.9m) – and it's easy to see why.
Along with its breathtaking lake and mountain vistas, the property has a host of highlights, including this stunning living room, complete with a large feature window and brick fireplace.
Other standout features of the property range from a family room with floor-to-ceiling windows that flood the space with light, to a snug den, chef's kitchen and master bedroom that leads out to a spacious terrace.
There's also plenty of additional outside space and even a court for playing pickleball, which has long been one of Bill Jr's favourite sports and his top way to unwind.
Elon Musk arrived on Planet Earth on 28 June 1971. The first child of Maye and Errol Musk, he spent his formative years in the upscale suburb of Waterkloof in Pretoria, South Africa.
Regularly topping the world's rich list, Musk has a $432 billion (£320bn) fortune in 2025, but this is no rags-to-riches tale. Let's see where it all began...
Elon was born into a well-off family that resided comfortably in one of Waterkloof's largest homes.
His engineer father Errol is said to have part-owned an emerald mine in Zambia (though Elon denies this), while Maye worked as a successful model and dietitian.
A super-bright kid, Elon badgered his father for a computer at the age of six or seven and swiftly taught himself how to program it.
Decades later, this smiley youngster went on to found PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX, as well as head Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency.
The family home was built from whitewashed brick, with large sliding glass doors that opened out onto the garden and orange scallop-edged awnings above the upstairs windows.
This shot, shared by Maye on X, shows the children posing for a snap as they left to go to school.
Musk was bullied relentlessly at school and even spent two weeks in hospital after he was thrown down a flight of stairs by a group of boys. Now the world's richest man, he's certainly had the last laugh.
Elon is pictured here with his younger siblings Kimbal and Tosca in what appears to their parents' bedroom sometime in the mid-1970s.
The orange damask bedspread and luxurious white headboard with built-in nightstand are the epitome of glam seventies style.
In 1989, Maye moved her children to her native Canada before Elon moved on to California to make his fortune.
Jeff Bezos was born on 12 January 1964 in Albuquerque to Jacklyn Gise and Ted Jørgensen, who were aged just 17 and 19, respectively.
They divorced not long after and in 1968 Jacklyn married Cuban immigrant Miguel Bezos, who adopted young Jeff that same year.
The Bezos family moved around a lot during the future billionaire's childhood, but they spent many a summer at Jeff's maternal grandfather's ranch outside Cotulla, Texas.
Jeff actually spent a dozen summers working on his grandpop Lawrence Preston Gise's Lazy Gise Ranch (called 'Lazy G' for short), which sprawls over 25,000 acres.
Snapped here in 1967 aged three, it wasn't until over a decade later that young Jeff got his first job, working as a line cook in a McDonald’s in Albuquerque, where he earned just $2.69 an hour.
The fast-paced job gave the budding entrepreneur an early insight into customer service and automation.
However, it was his time spent on the family ranch that the internet entrepreneur credits with making him resourceful and self-reliant.
Speaking with his brother Mark at a Summit talk in 2017, the centibillionaire told the audience that his time on the ranch made a big impact.
Jeff and his grandfather built this Sears kit home from scratch, which – along with building fences, fixing windmills and suturing livestock – made a lasting impression and taught him valuable life lessons.
This time spent toiling away on the ranch certainly stood him in good stead.
His belief that “constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency and invention", picked up from those working summers is written into Amazon's DNA.
It was instrumental in making the site a huge success and its founder a huge fortune, which currently stands at a staggering $221 billion (£164bn).
Albert von Thurn und Taxis was born in Regensburg, Germany on 24 June 1983 to Prince Johannes and Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis.
When Johannes died in 1990, aged 64, seven-year-old Albert became the twelfth Prince of Thurn und Taxis.
At age eight, he made it onto the Forbes Rich List, which named him the youngest billionaire in the world with a fortune of $1.5 billion, which is the equivalent of around $3.5 billion (£2.6bn) today.
The family's seat is the Palace of St. Emmeram in Regensburg. With more than 500 rooms, it's said to be bigger than Buckingham Palace and is the largest privately inhabited palace in Germany.
It's built on the site of the Benedictine Imperial Abbey of St. Emmeram, parts of which date back to the 12th century.
Albert is pictured here with his mother, father and older sisters Maria Theresia and Elisabeth enjoying Christmas at the palace in 1983 (left). He was snapped again in front of one of the palace's many artworks with Gloria, who was aged 19 when she married 53-year-old Prince Johannes in 1980.
The affable prince went on to study in Edinburgh and Rome, earning a doctorate in philosophy. He's also a championship-winning racing driver.
Forbes last valued Albert's net worth at $1.6 billion in 2014.
While Albert still lives in the impressive palace, parts of it are still open to the public, including the medieval cloister, crypt chapel, treasury, the former stables, which house a carriage collection, and the state rooms, including this beautiful ballroom.
Known as the Baroque Hall, it spans 2,045 square feet (190sqm) and boasts an ornately decorated 23-foot (7m) high ceiling. It's described as having an "extravagantly festive" air and is still used to host celebrations today.
As a devoutly Catholic family, it's no surprise that the Thurn und Taxis clan have a private chapel in their home, complete with an illuminated gold-plated altar.
Aside from his magnificent schloss, Albert owns plenty more real estate – including more palaces – as well as priceless art and 88,958 acres (36,000ha) of German woodland, which is said to be one of the largest forest holdings in Europe, according to Forbes.
Françoise Bettencourt was born on 10 July 1953, straight into an enormously wealthy family.
Her grandfather Eugène Schueller, a chemist who invented safe hair dye, founded L’Oréal back in 1909. Today the L’Oréal group owns global brands including Maybelline, Lancôme and Aesop, whose expensive handsoap adorns aspirational bathrooms everywhere.
After Schueller died in 1957, his daughter Liliane – Françoise's mother – became the company's largest individual shareholder and the world's richest woman.
Francoise grew up in this imposing home, built by her grandfather in the Parisian suburb of Neuilly-sur-Seine.
The home covers more than 107,634 square feet (1,000sqm) and, although this view from the sweeping garden would have us believe the home has a mere two storeys, it actually boasts five levels – including a 98-foot (30m) pool in the 'second basement'.
Françoise was brought up surrounded by extraordinary luxury. Eagle-eyed art lovers will notice Monet's The Path Through the Irises hanging behind Lilian and her husband André in this photo taken in their sitting room in 1988.
Works by Matisse, Picasso and Léger hang throughout the elegant home, alongside sculpture by François Pompom and furniture by Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann.
After André died in 2007 and Liliane's death in 2017, writer and philanthropist Françoise inherited more than a third of the L’Oréal Group. With it, she became the world's richest woman, and in 2023, she was named the first woman with a net worth of $100 billion (£74bn).
Bettencourt, who has two sons and is married to businessman Jean-Pierre Meyers, has served on the L’Oréal board since 1997. She announced she was stepping down in 2025, at which time her fortune was estimated at $88 billion (£65bn).
Naturally, the family home wasn't the only property the family owned while Francoise was growing up. They also enjoyed this holiday home on Pointe de l'Arcouest in Ploubazlanec, Brittany, which Eugène built in 1920.
Famous friends regularly came to stay, including French President Georges Pompidou and his wife Claude, pictured here during the summer of 1969.
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