World's Most Expensive House: Mukesh and Nita Ambani Reveal Interiors of Antilia

A building that is 570ft tall, covers a total of 400,000 sq ft spread over 27 floors, has three helicopter pads, underground parking for 160 car and requires a staff of 600 to run - this is a short description of the new and extravagant residence of Mukesh and Nita Ambani - one of India's wealthiest and most powerful business families. This is the place they call home - Antilia - which has been named for a mythical island.

Ambani, the Chairman of Reliance Industries, has spared absolutely no expense in building his dream home and neither has his wife, who described the home, to Vanity Fair, as a "modern home with an Indian heart", adding it was the "only home we have in the world".

"We made our home right at the top because we wanted the sunlight... so it's an elevated house on top of a garden," Nita added.

Construction on the building started in 2008 and finished late in 2010 and was accompanied by a deluge of speculation and rumours concerning design, aesthetics, expense and even morality. However, the family has steadfastly refused to comment on any of these matters. It now appears the family shifted to their new home in September and took time to observe Hindu traditions and the niceties of Vastu Shastra.

"It's a private home. There is no reason to discuss it in public," a spokesperson for Reliance Industries had earlier claimed. Nita, however, is a bit more open now.

"This is the first time I am talking about my home. There have been exaggerated reports in the media about it, I must say," Nita said, in the November 2011 interview.

According to a report in the Huffington Post, the house is worth more than $1bn but given that Ambani is, according to a Forbes 2010 study, the fifth richest man in the world and has a personal fortune of $29bn, it does not seem like too much of an expense.

The family, apart from being global players in the energy industry, own an Indian Premiere League (cricket) team, the country's first Hindi-language Braille newspaper, a 400-acre model township that houses 12,000 people and a 400-bed hospital and a world-class university, the latter two of which are under construction and being planned, respectively.