India's richest man builds the first $1bn house.

[Graham Kennedy]

I've always had a hankering to live somewhere very high up. Just the thought of having an apartment a thousand feet up... the view would be amazing.

But I also like the idea of solitude... a small island somewhere, a few miles offshore, a speedboat to go back and forth. A comfy place to live, but absolutely nobody else there, nobody for miles and miles.

If I were a billionaire I'd probably have places in a lot of major cities and places around the world. Just move from one to the next as I felt like.

[Mikey]

I'm not sure if I can even conceive of what that sort of money can buy. My family is here; I'd probably by a nice $5 - $10 million house in one of the nicer shore towns here, and a vacation home in the Caribbean (perhaps) or in Hawai'i (more attractive, but a hao'le getting land there is just about a bitch, even regardless of the cost.)

Fix the boat - better, torch the boat and buy a Viking. Get that DB9 I've had my eye on, maybe an XLR or SC430 for the wife, and a nice Escalade or somesuch to tote the kids around. Set up a staggered bond ladder to provide rolling cap gains to cover the landscapers and such, invest in a couple of my cousins' businesses. and put a big chunk in the kids' 523's.

Plus, of course, the condos in Manhattan, L.A., New Orleans, London, Tokyo, Odessa...

[Tyyr]

That's something I've never really gotten. Owning a place in so many locales. No thanks. I like having one home, period. If I want to go somewhere I'll get a hotel room. I don't see the point in owning a place you live less than a month a year.

[Mikey]

That's something I've never really gotten. Owning a place in so many locales. No thanks. I like having one home, period. If I want to go somewhere I'll get a hotel room. I don't see the point in owning a place you live less than a month a year.

Who needs a point? We're talking about a billionaire. You'd have to make shit up just to spend money on in order to get through the day.

[Graham Kennedy]

Or how about this... be your very own Captain Nemo!

http://obviousmag.org/en/archives/2008/ ... arine.html

[Tyyr]

I need a point. If I'm going to go through the trouble of buying a place, paying to furnish it, keep it up, pay the staff who takes care of it all the time, I need a real tangible benefit to doing that and I just can't see going to all that trouble for a place to stay when you want a long weekend away. A hotel penthouse makes more sense in those regards.

Yeah, I get that with that kind of money its not about saving it or being frugal but I still can't see the point in blowing the money unless I'm getting some kind of real tangible benefit out of it. My own plane, a big yacht, topless native girls just lounging around my house all the time, all provide a benefit I couldn't really substitute for but when I look at hotel room vs. owning a place I just don't see it.

[Graham Kennedy]

Well for me, I don't like hotels. I don't like the feeling that you're in another person's space, that you have to be on at least something approaching your best behaviour because a stranger can come and demand access. Knowing that the place I am in is MINE, that I can chill out and relax and lock the world out because I am in my own space... that's important to me.

[kostmayer]

A private Submarine is something I'd love to have, though even the small ones available now apparently cost silly money to maintain.

I'm with Tyr on the multiple houses thing. I can barely maintain my little one room flat, I'd never manage to look after a a house, let alone half a dozen abodes across the globe. And I know you can get staff to do it with that money, but I'm not sure I'd want a bunch of strangers around anyways. That said, I dont like sleeping in strange beds either. Maybe few small apartments dotted about my fave cities.

My own plane would be nice, but something I could fly myself. Nice seaplane maybe.

[Reliant121]

I'd love to fly but, you know, colour blind.

[kostmayer]

Don't tell me they have traffic lights up there now as well?

[Tyyr]

If you're gonna buy a seaplane, buy a classic.

[Reliant121]

Catalina.

[Captain Seafort]

There's better. The Short C-Class, military variant, for example.

[Tyyr]

There's better.

I sincerely disagree.

[Vic]

I might just be nationaly biased, but , Cat all the way. One of my all time fav's.