SOMEWHAT EXPENSIVE

1. Antilla

Deshakalyan Chowdhury/AFP/Getty Images
Mukesh Ambani is building his family a $1 billion home in Mumbai, India.

The record for most expensive house in the world will be set officially in 2009, when Indian multibillionaire Mukesh Ambani and his family move into their newly built home: Antilla. This record could stand for a very long time. At a cost of $1 billion, Ambani's 27-story tower -- complete with helipad on top -- dwarfs the next most expensive home, both financially and in stature. Forget going to the gym -- the Ambanis will have their own health club. And their friends can drop by in droves because the six-floor garage will hold 168 cars . The tower will be 570 feet tall, and made mostly of glass. The ultra-modern mansion will feature panic rooms, a movie theater and a staff of 600 servants  .

Mukesh Ambani is the head of a global conglomerate and the richest man in the emerging Indian economy, which explains why his new home will have more floor space than Louis XIV's palace at Versailles. And because each floor is double the average height, Antilla will technically be 60 stories tall. The towering house isn't too disconnected from nature; each level will have lush gardens. It seems a refuge fit for a shy man referred to as "a modern-day Howard Hughes"