London Penthouse Sells for Record $220 Million

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Pundits are already calling a London penthouse the "world's most expensive home," after it recently sold for £140 million, or about $220 million.

The six-bedroom apartment sits atop One Hyde Park, the opulent complex under construction in Knightsbridge. Developed by the Candy brothers and designed by Rogers Sirk Harbour + Partners, the four hexagonal towers offer 86 apartments, with prices starting at $31 million.

Sixty-five percent of the units have been sold in the project, which is expected to complete by the end of the year, according to the Daily Telegraph. In 2008, the foreign minister of Qatar paid about £100 million, or $196 million, for one of the apartments, Luxist reports.

The two-story penthouse in One Hyde Park boasts bullet-proof windows, a panic room, purified air and tunnel access to the Mandarin Oriental next door. The buyer is still unknown, although speculation is focused on the many foreign buyers snatching up trophy London properties, the Telegraph reports.     

The real estate blogosphere has been quick to name the apartment the "world's most expensive home," but there are competitors.

For example, Villa Leopolda, an estate on the French Riviera, reportedly fetched an offer of $500 million, but the deal was never completed. (The buyer, Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, eventually sued for the return of his $55 million deposit.)

Candy Spelling, the widow of TV producer Aaron Spelling, has her 52,000-square-foot mansion in Holmby Hills, California, on the market for $150 million. But that's just the asking price. Nobody wins titles for asking price. 

Last year a Hong Kong apartment was widely dubbed "the most expensive apartment in the world," after it sold for $9,200 a square foot, although the final price was a relatively pedestrian $57 million. Either way, that deal fell through in June.

The London apartment might be the world's most expensive based on price-per-square-foot. But the world's most expensive home--using the definition loosely--will almost certainly be Antilla, the 27-story custom-designed tower under construction in the center of Mumbai for Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani, one of the richest men in the world.

Antilla, with its hanging gardens, six-stories of parking, ballrooms, helipads and various other must-have amenities, reportedly will cost more than $1 billion to build.

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