The likes of Versailles and Buckingham Palace pale in comparison to the magnificent palaces of the Saudi royal family. Unsurprisingly, the wealthiest regal dynasty, whose inner circle is said to number 2,000, owns hundreds of spectacular estates around the world. From the opulent palaces of Riyadh and a $195 million (£145m) desert compound to 10 mansions on London's billionaires' row, this is one royal family with a staggering monopoly on the globe's most expensive real estate.
Click or scroll on to discover the secrets behind the most incredible homes of the House of Saud...
The modern Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was established in 1932 by King Abdulaziz Al Saud. In less than a century, the oil-rich nation has become a major global player, ruled by the House of Saud dynasty. The reigning royal family, many members of the clan also hold government roles.
King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (pictured) has been the absolute monarch of Saudi Arabia since he ascended to the throne on 23 January, 2015. The 25th son of the nation's founder, King Salman has an array of extraordinary palaces at his disposal, which is hardly surprising given the House of Saud's estimated net worth of $1.4 trillion (£1tn).
The sprawling Al-Yamamah Palace (also Al-Yamama) in the Saudi capital of Riyadh is the official residence of King Salman. A working palace, the building also serves as the headquarters for the royal court.
Encompassing a staggering four million square feet (371,612sqm) and a thousand rooms, the extravagant royal residence was constructed in 1983. Its vast footprint is said to include multiple swimming pools, a mosque, and a cinema.
The exterior of the elegant, modern building nods to traditional Arabic Najdi architecture, with its geometric motifs and pointed arched windows, and is relatively minimal.
However, the interiors are anything but. As seen here, stunning chandeliers, rich carpets, ornate antiques, and gold accents abound, with ornate doors leading into the extravagant, heavily gilded room.
Elsewhere in the palace, this spectacular vaulted space features an enormous chandelier suspended from the centre of the ceiling's concentric domes. Italian marble floors, and gilded wall panels and columns complete the lavish scheme.
King Salman chairs government meetings in the building and often welcomes foreign dignitaries and other VIPs to the palace. In December 2022, the monarch hosted President Xi Jinping of China at the palace to discuss a strategic partnership between the two countries.
Meanwhile, in December 2023, King Salman welcomed Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Al-Yamamah Palace for diplomatic talks. The meeting took place in this remarkable white hall, with its swagged curtains, gilded brocade wall panelling, and coffered ceiling.
Delegates from both nations lined opposing sides of the room, while King Salman and Putin convened in the centre below a large portrait of the Saudi ruler.
King Salman is so rich that he has several overflow palaces where he can retreat and receive guests. Located in central Riyadh and completed relatively recently, Erga Palace is one such residence. Featuring a dramatic approach lined with palm trees, water fountains, and pristine landscaping, the royal residence is no less grand than the ruler's official palace.
Shortly after King Salman became ruler in 2015, he hosted then-US President Barack Obama at Erga Palace, who expressed his condolences on the death of the late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.
Like Al-Yamamah, Erga Palace is ostentatious, with more than its fair share of gilding, rich silk carpets, and pricey Italian marble. As is common among the other Saudi royal palaces, portraits of King Salman are seen throughout the complex.
To celebrate the visit, the King treated President Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and their entourage to an elaborate banquet at the palace. The hosts and guests are said to have dined on lobster, lamb, jewelled rice, and other delicacies.
During their time at the palace reporting on the diplomatic meeting, journalists also spotted gold-plated Kleenex dispensers alongside gold chairs, according to CBS News
As seen in this photo of one of the palace's official rooms, even the waste paper bins are made from silver.
Erga Palace is largely used for government functions, state receptions, and meetings with Saudi and overseas dignitaries and VIPs. The complex also regularly plays host to cultural festivals that seek to introduce Saudi arts and customs to the international community.
King Abdulaziz Al Saud, also known as King Ibn Saud, was a prominent Arab tribal leader who conquered Riyadh and swathes of Arabia before founding Saudi Arabia in 1932. When petroleum was discovered just six years later, the crude oil spelt prosperity for the young nation.
Following his ascension to the throne, King Abdulaziz commissioned the construction of a vast palace that would be a showcase of Saudi Arabia's new wealth. The 32-room Murabba Palace in Riyadh was finally completed in 1945 and was used as the primary residence of the royal family. The building is now open to the public.
The palace was built in the Najdian style and incorporates many age-old construction techniques and design features such as straw-reinforced adobe walls, acacia and palm frond ceilings. and cooling central courtyards.
The floor plan extends over two floors and includes reception rooms for hosting royal guests, as well as administrative offices for members of the royal household.
Pictured here is the grand central courtyard of the palace, a magnificent space lined with undulating white friezes and columns.
In the 1990s, Murabba Palace and the surrounding complex underwent restoration at the hands of planners at the Arriyadh Development Authority as part of a larger redevelopment project in the region. Overseen by master builder Ibn Ghabaa, traditional local materials were utilised in the renovations to ensure the palace remained faithful to its roots.
Among the array of reception rooms in the complex is this grand royal reception hall featuring ornate marble columns, a coffered ceiling, and richly-hued Persian rugs.
Several notable VIPs have visited the palace over the years, including American President Donald Trump, who enjoyed a Saudi sword dance in the grounds during his visit in May 2017, and even briefly joined in with the performance. Years earlier, President George W. Bush was given a guided tour of the palace-turned-museum, which is a major tourist attraction.
Pictured here back in 2005, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder tours the palace's private reception room. A prominent portrait of King Abdulaziz Al Saud takes centre stage above sofas upholstered in red silk brocade. The carefully preserved space looks virtually the same decades later.
Murabba Palace is now a living museum, where members of the public can take a step back in time and glimpse the first royal palace of the Saudi royal family.
King Salman's seventh son and heir, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, also known as MBS, doesn't hold back when it comes to spending the family fortune. The Crown Prince, who has also served as the Prime Minister of Saudi Arabia since 2022, has pretty expensive tastes if his $500 million (£373m) yacht is anything to go by.
While Riyadh is home, the next-in-line to the throne regularly jets around the world for his work with the wider political community, so it makes sense that the Crown Prince would have a European bolthole. Yet far more than a simple holiday home, MBS holds the deeds to one of the world's most expensive houses.
Pictured here, the stunning Château Louis XIV is situated in the commune of Louveciennes in France, not far from Versailles. Channelling the ornate design of the famous European palace, the grand property is modelled on a 17th-century French castle.
The Crown Prince splurged €275 million ($323m/£240m) on the swanky château back in 2015, according to an investigation by reporters from the New York Times. Located in the western suburbs of Paris, the palatial 10-bedroom château was lauded as the world's most expensive home.
The 57-acre (23ha) landscaped grounds are worthy of Versailles itself, featuring elaborate gold-leafed water fountains, ornate marble statues, avenues of trees, and a hedged maze. A collision of tradition and modernity, the fountains can reportedly be controlled by an iPhone.
While the Baroque-style estate is steeped in historic architectural references, it was only built in 2011. The home's developer is said to have bulldozed a 19th-century castle that previously occupied the lot to make way for the lavish estate.
A tour shared by YouTube channel Luxury Homes offers us a glimpse inside the highly secure mansion. Here, you can see one of the many exquisite frescoed ceilings, illuminated by a staggering multi-tiered chandelier. Handcrafted by French artisans, the château's interiors are resplendent with marble, gilded ironwork, and ornate materials.
Plenty of money has been poured into the estate's amenities, too. The mansion features two ballrooms, a movie theatre, two swimming pools, a squash court, and an underground space dedicated to showcasing the Crown Prince's art collection.
Given its scale and grandeur, it's no surprise that the mansion has drawn celebrity admirers. In April 2014, a year before MBS snapped up the château, Kim Kardashian paid a visit to the palace in what many speculated was a tour of potential wedding venues in the run-up to her nuptials with Kanye West. While the former couple tied the knot in Florence instead, the property seemingly left quite an impression on Kim.
Pictured here during the visit in a photo she shared on Instagram, the reality star sits alongside friend and Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing in the mansion's incredible underwater meditation room. The glass-lined space is built within the castle's moat and allows guests to admire shoals of fish swimming above them.
King Salman's nephew, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, is one of the richest investors in the Middle East. According to Bloomberg, his net worth stands at $14.5 billion (£10.8bn) thanks to his company's investments in Citigroup, Lyft and Elon Musk's X.
Back in 2009, Prince Alwaleed purchased Villa Ceriana, an Italian castle in Castagneto Po, Turin. The castle was the childhood home of supermodel, musician, and former First Lady of France, Carla Bruni. Prince Alwaleed bought the estate from Bruni's family, who had spent a fortune restoring the prized property.
The fabric of Villa Ceriana dates back to the 19th century; however, the home's previous iteration occupied the same site as early as 1019.
Perched up in the hills, the remote neo-Gothic palace has more than 40 rooms adorned with elaborate frescoes, gilded mouldings, and plenty of Rococo flair. Balancing out its rich history, the mansion also has state-of-the-art amenities, including ultra-modern kitchens, lifts, and underfloor heating.
The regal property stands within almost 175 acres (70ha) of English-style parkland designed by 19th-century landscape architect Saverio Kurten. The manicured grounds feature vegetable gardens, fruit orchards, greenhouses, a caretaker’s house, and a farm building.
Rich in history, this beautiful, storied estate is the perfect slice of la dolce vita when Prince Alwaleed spends time in Europe. But let's see where the Prince calls home when he's in Saudi Arabia...
Surrounded by the urban sprawl of Riyadh, the Prince's staggering palace with its verdant grounds and numerous turquoise swimming pools certainly stands out from the city's tarmac and desert terrain.
But it's not all been plain sailing for the Saudi royal. Prince Alwaleed bin Talal was arrested in November of 2017 in a corruption clampdown and kept in detention for three months at Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton hotel. He was released the following January after paying a financial settlement. Luckily for him, the Saudi prince managed to keep hold of this sprawling estate.
According to TIME magazine, which ran a profile on the Prince in 1997 when construction was almost complete, the property cost a staggering $100 million to build, the equivalent of around $202 million (£150m) in modern money.
Dubbed 'Promotion Palace' by locals, the extravagant estate has a total of 420 rooms, decorated with rich silk carpets, copious gilding, and swathes of the finest Italian marble. The palace is packed with the ultimate amenities that money can buy, including this two-lane bowling alley surrounded by tropical greenery in one of the mansion's many themed rooms.
Elsewhere, there's a long, 16-seater dining table in the mansion's safari-themed sitting room, which sits alongside a faux rock face that houses a vast fish tank.
According to TIME, the estate has four kitchens for cooking "Lebanese, Arabic, Continental, and Asian cuisines, and a fifth just for dishing up desserts, run by chefs who can feed 2,000 people on an hour’s notice".
If he's in the mood for a dip, the Prince can choose between three swimming pools, including this enormous lagoon-like leisure complex featuring palm trees and tropical foliage. The palace also has a 45-seat underground cinema and 250 flat-screen TVs.
The luxury doesn't stop there. Prince Alwaleed is said to own some 300 cars, along with a fleet of private jets and a 282-foot (86m) yacht once owned by Donald Trump.
King Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud ruled Saudi Arabia from 1982, during the height of the oil boom, to his death in 2005. The 11th son of King Abdulaziz, the nation's founder, King Fahd oversaw a period of fervent development in Saudi Arabia, spearheading a number of vast infrastructure projects that dramatically modernised the country.
Relishing the spoils of the oil fields both at home and abroad, the ruler enjoyed spending time in Spain's most exclusive resorts, so much so that he built a palace in the affluent coastal city of Marbella on the Costa del Sol.
Captured by urban explorer Steve Ronin, the Mar-Mar Palace was constructed in the 1980s and sits within a 200-acre (80ha) estate known as the Nahda complex. It's aptly located on Marbella's Golden Mile, one of the most expensive stretches of real estate in Spain.
The design for the royal residence was inspired by the White House. Though the property was abandoned and left to the elements when King Fahd passed away, the mansion's grand architecture and sprawling proportions are still evident today.
Pictured here in 1999 in the mansion's heyday, King Fahd hosts King Juan Carlos of Spain in one of the palace's regally appointed reception rooms. The two recline on silk-upholstered armchairs, while the flag of Saudi Arabia stands prominently behind them.
The mansion was awash with gold fixtures and furnishings, while the grounds were reportedly home to swimming pools, self-contained villas to accommodate extended family and staff, a helipad, a private health clinic, and even a mosque.
While locals hoped that the Saudi royal family would continue to frequent that estate after King Fahd's passing, the holiday complex has fallen into ruin. Today, the palace is a shell of its former self. Its cavernous living spaces, framed by ornate archways, are marred by clutter and debris. Judging by this image, it looks as though the structure is being used for storage, perhaps.
Here is the gated entrance to the palace complex in August 2005, the day after King Fahd's death. In response to the former Saudi leader's passing, the city of Marbella declared three days of mourning and a heart-shaped wreath of foliage was placed just outside the property.
King Fahd left a lasting impression on Spain's upmarket holiday resort. On his last seven-week visit to Marbella in 2002 before his death, he's said to have injected some €90 million into the city's economy thanks in part to the 300 hotel rooms he booked for his entourage and the 500 local staff he hired for the duration of his stay, according to British newspaper The Guardian. In today's money, that's more than €147 million ($172m/£128m).
Spain isn't the only European destination to have caught King Fahd's eye during his reign. The Saudi monarch and the wider royal family are thought to have purchased a row of 10 homes on one of London's most expensive streets between 1989 and 1993. The Bishop's Avenue is an exclusive stretch of mega-mansions worth tens of millions of pounds; however, some of the homes' billionaire owners have left their properties to languish.
Urban explorers Beyond the Point captured the decaying grandeur of the street, including some of the grand homes that once belonged to the Saudi royal family.
The elaborate double staircase of this mansion, known as The Towers, is in a dire state of abandonment. Damp has spread across the walls and ceiling, while foliage lines the stair treads.
King Fahd paid $31.6 million (£23.5m) for the property before demolishing part of the original structure and constructing a grand redbrick mansion. However, according to Business Insider, the Saudis never showed up, and the home fell into ruin. The property was eventually sold in 2013, before being ravaged by a devastating fire in July 2023.
Elsewhere on the street, this sunroom is in a seemingly better state of repair. Featuring vestiges of 1980s design, from the swagged curtains and ceiling to the rattan furniture, the untouched space is a veritable time warp.
Despite spending a huge sum of money on The Bishop's Avenue, it's unclear if King Fahd or other prominent members of the Saudi royal family ever stayed in the lavish properties they purchased. Many homes on the road are treated as investments by overseas buyers, while others are only used for short periods of the year.
Kenstead Hall, pictured here in 1973, was another of the mansions purchased by King Fahd on The Bishop's Avenue.
The mock-Tudor home hit headlines in 2018 and 2023 after it became the centre of a five-year lawsuit. King Fahd's widow, Aljawharah Alibrahim, was sued by the Asturion Foundation over her right to ownership of the mansion. The Foundation was established to manage the overseas property assets of the late ruler. The court was told that the King had instructed that Kenstead Hall be signed over to his wife in 2001. However, the transfer only took place in 2011, six years after the monarch's death, causing the transaction to be contested. In December 2023, the High Court finally ruled in favour of Alibrahim, asserting her legal right to her late husband's property.
Moroccan-born Mohammed Al Fassi's connection to the Saudi royal dynasty is slightly more tenuous than his predecessors in this gallery; however, his story is no less fascinating. Al Fassi moved to Saudi Arabia as a child, and when his sister married into the House of Saud, he adopted the honorific 'sheikh', which refers to an Arab chief or leader.
Al Fassi's royal connections made him a rich and successful businessman. In the wake of his first marriage in 1975 and his rising wealth, the Sheikh and the Italian-born Sheikha Dena Al Fassi set their sights on one of the US's richest neighbourhoods...
In 1978, the couple purchased the legendary Whittier Mansion in the exclusive enclave of Beverly Hills for $2.4 million in cash – the equivalent of $11.9 million (£8.9m) today.
The mansion was constructed in 1917 by Californian oil tycoon Max Whittier, who had been instrumental in the development of Beverly Hills. The property had a revered history, which may explain the neighbourhood's animosity towards some of the changes the Sheikh made.
The Italian Renaissance-style home was steeped in history; however, the Sheikh splashed some $5 million – or $24.9 million (£18.5m) in modern money – on renovations following the sale. Alterations included the installation of a copper roof and a mosque, as well as a gold bathtub in the master bathroom and a mirrored ceiling in the bedroom. However, the most controversial change was the exterior, which the Sheikh painted lime green, much to the annoyance of his neighbours.
Al Fassi was photographed at the property in 1979. Here you can see the ostentatious formal dining room, which featured a long mahogany table and wood-panelled walls inset with painted murals.
Among the home's 56 rooms, this red space was possibly the most unusual. Featuring a red pool table with gold fringing, arched windows, a glittering chandelier, and a vaulted ceiling draped in red silk, it was certainly a bold statement.
Situated on a 3.6-acre (1.5ha) property, the Sheikh also made a few notable changes to the mansion's grounds. According to the American newspaper the Los Angeles Times, plastic flowers were positioned along the veranda, and the classical statues that peppered the acreage were painted in unusual hues.
However, disaster struck just two years after the Sheikh purchased the mansion. In 1980, a fire ripped through the residence, gutting its recently renovated interior. It was later ruled as arson.
In a seeming spate of bad luck, Al Fassi's wife filed for divorce in 1983. The divorce settlement was among the largest in US history at that time, with the Sheikha awarded just less than $85 million – $277 million (£206m) today – as well as the deeds to the beleaguered Beverly Hills mansion, along with other property and valuables. The charred remains of the Al Fassi mansion were sold and bulldozed for redevelopment in 1985.
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