Sultan of Brunei

Istana Nurul Iman palace is the official residence of the Sultan of Brunei is named as the largest residential palace in the world and the largest single family residence ever built.

Location: The largest residential palace in the world is located in Brunei, in Southeast asia.

Accommodation: The largest single family residence in the world contains jaw dropping 1,788 rooms, which includes 257 bathrooms, a banquet hall that can be expanded to accommodate up to 5,000 guests, a mosque accommodating 1,500 people. The largest palace also includes 110-car garage, 5 swimming pools and table for the Sultan's 200 polo ponies.

An estate in Las Vegas with an official listing of $37.5 million with Zar Zanganeh (Vegas Fine Estates) has been getting a lot of attention lately. It was purportedly built for occupation by the Sultan of Brunei for his younger brother, Prince Jefri Bolkiah. It is currently owned by the president of Consumer Credit Services, Inc., Eric Petersen, who had purchased it for $14 million in 2004.

Location: This estate is located very close to the Las Vegas Strip, in Clark County, Nevada. Though known by that name, the Strip is not located in the City of Las Vegas. Most part of this Strip has been designated as All-Americn Road.

Accommodation: Being one of the biggest homes in Las Vegas, it has 17 bedroom suites with attached bathrooms. There is a master bedroom and a total of 36 bathrooms in the house. The parking lot has the capacity to hold 50 vehicles and the garage holds 11 cars. The large ballroom can accommodate a thousand people.

Features: The home sits on 11.2 acres of well-developed estate. This includes an international-sized swimming pool, swan pond and large gardens with an arcade of palms. The landscape is decorated with fountains, lawns, sitting areas and extensive, decorative lighting. The estate also has an equestrian center along with a polo track, a sushi bar and a discotheque. The house has been constituted by 8 separate buildings. Everything about the house - master bedroom, kitchen and master bathroom are extra large. The commercial kitchen is restaurant grade. Add to this the luxuries of a nightclub, a large ballroom, a separate men's and ladies' spa and salon! The master bedroom, themed with a large zebra-skin carpet, is about 4000 square feet in itself. The home has a total living space greater than 73,000 square feet.

Neighborhood: The neighborhood is home to the largest hotels, casinos, residential buildings and resorts in the world. Most of the Hollywood celebrities would definitely have paid it a visit some time or the other.

St.John's Lodge, the private residence of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiahand, the Sultan of Brunei and has been estimated to value £110 million. Built about 200 years ago in 1812, the 'lodging' of the Sultan is one among the only two villas (the other being The Holme) from the Regent's Park conceived by John Nash.

Location: This residence is located on the Inner Circle in Regent's Park. Till the year 1965, this was part of the St Marylebone Metropolitan Borough in London, but today is a part of Westminster.

Accommodation: The home is constituted by three connected buildings. Two of these buildings, known as the main house and second house are in fact occupied by guests and the service staff. The Sultan's 'room' is located in the separate private building. It is massive and measures about 3,500 sq ft in living area.

Features: The St.John's Lodge is surrounded by the largest and most beautiful gardens of London. It is open to public and presents a real slice of environmental heaven. Arts and crafts of the classical and revival eras, a meditation garden, a fountain, a Doric temple and massive stone portico decorate the gardens.

Neighborhood: The home has the most impressive and regal environs one could hope for - Regent's Park. Being one of the Royal Parks of London, its 166 acres are filled with a host of amenities and facilities for the public.

A lavish mansion, once owned by the “Sultan of Brunei” has hit the property market for a reported listed price of $38 million. The Spanish colonial styled mansion was built in 1927 and served as the temporary residence for the Sultan on the rare occasions when he used to visit California. The sprawling property was purchased in 1987 and the royal hired famous interior decorators Tim Morrison and Tom Proctor to renovate the home which received an extensive facelift.

Location: The home is situated near the Sunset Boulevard area in the Beverley Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Accommodation: The Sultan’s former palatial estate covers almost two acres of ground. The main mansion is a two storied building spread over 14,000 square feet of living space and the living quarters consists of eight bedrooms, living room ,dining area, dressing room, library, modern gourmet kitchen and eleven bathrooms. The outdoor part of the estate features a covered porch, open patio and beautifully landscaped gardens. The cavernous garage can fit in 30 big cars at a time. The mansion offers great views of Los Angeles and the iconic Beverly Hills Hotel.

Features: The entire house is steeped in luxury and its grandiose interiors bear ample signs of its royal past. Most of the bedrooms have been equipped with stone fireplaces and expensive Malibu tiles lines the floors of most rooms. The house has been decorated using expensive antique furniture. An infinity edge swimming pool along with a cabana is situated in the villa’s outdoor area. Most of the bathrooms have been fitted with Jacuzzis and there is also an indoor spa.

Neighborhood: Some of the most iconic Hollywood celebrities of the likes of Madonna, Pamela Anderson, Janet Jackson and Janet Jackson own homes in the immediate neighborhood of the Sultan’s grand mansion.

Sultan’s private jet Boeing 747-400 is no less than a palace itself. A living room, a bed room with details of gold and precious gold in the jet could only belong to a Sultan. The jet is also equipped with all the modern facilities and has a separate remote control desk.

the Sultan owns Boeing 767 which is a mid-size, wide-body twin-engine jet airliner built by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.

"Airbus A340-200 seats up to 261 passengers in a three-class cabin layout have a range of 7,450 nautical miles (13,800 km). jet is the only version with wingspan measuring greater than the length of the fuselage. This was launched for long and thin routes, especially over water.

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The Sultan of Brunei has almost 600 Mercs in his garage. One whole section of his hangar is dedicated for storing the world's most exclusive and rarest Mercs. Being the absolute Sultan of a country comes with its own benefits. His collection includes models which are not meant for public consumption, like the special S-class Touring model designed just for the Sultan and a yellow Mercedes Sprinter with a red interior. He also has 100s of 1996-1997 model Mercedes-Benz 500 sedans and 1995-97 500 SELs and SLs, all black. The Sultan got himself the only right hand drive Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR in the world.

The Sultan has Ferraris which were just meant to be concept cars. However, when one has money to spend than any concept can take a physical form. His 2 fully operational Ferrari Mythos are just an example of that. His Ferrari 456 is one of the perfect mix of elegance and indulgence. He got himself a factory made four-door sedan and wagon version of the Italian stallion. His other Ferraris include names like Ferrari F40, Ferrari FX and both of the Ferrari 456 GT Sedans. He also has the Ferrari Testarossa F90, Ferrari F50 Bolide Tub by Pininfarina and Ferrari 550 Barchetta Speciale among others.

One cannot possibly even imagine a car collection without the elegance of BMWs. The Sultan also thinks the same way and therefore has a couple 100 of these beauties in his private collection.

Going by the sheer numbers of Rolls-Royces he has, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to say that these are the favorite cars of Sultan. He has so much love for these high-performance and super-luxurious cars, that he keeps a Rolls-Royce in front of his palace with the engine running 24-7. Needless to add, all his cars are bullet-proof and feature state-of-the-art technology.

The biggest home for cars?

Emperors and empires have existed throughout world history. But here is an emperor and an empire with a difference - a difference so huge that it would not have been even imagined had it not existed! It is not a coincidence that theThe Empire Hotel in Brunei is witness to the greatest empire of cars. A garage, the size of five aircraft hangars, holds within it a collection of 7000 of the world' finest cars with a combined estimated value of $5 billion!

A neatly classified garage

It would be misleading to call this palace of cars as a garage but even if we were to call it so functionally, it is much more than that. It has separate wings to hold the different brands. Thus, there is a Mercedes wing, a Rolls Royce wing, a Lamborghini wing, a Jaguar wing, a BMW wing, a Ferrari wing, a Porsche wing, a Bentley wing and so on! Some of the cars housed here are the only ones of their kind on the face of the earth like thePorsche Carma and the right-hand drive Mercedes CLKGTR. Several concept cars like the Ferrari Mythos and Pininfarina-designed Jaguar XJ-220 also grace the 'garage'.

A King's Life

The cars also seem to share the royal life of the Sultan. They barely get out of the garage because of two reasons:

1. A car parked all the way at the back may need almost 1.5 hours to be brought out.

2. With a ratio of more than 100 cars per individual in the Sultan's family and court, a car gets to be used only thrice a year even probabilistically!

Brunei Sultan got married to his third wife Azrinaz Mazhar Hakim in private ceremony in Kuala Lumpur in 2005. While they were married Azrinaz bore two children for the Sultan and after that they got divorced.

Pengiran Isteri Hajah Mariam got married to Sultan and became her second wife. The two got divorced in 2003.

Collecting rare and limited edition cars is Sultan's favorite hobby.cars like Ferrari wagon-izations,Aston Martin, and Bentley are few luxury cars that rests in his garage. Brunei's Prince Jafri spent $78 million at Pininfarina SpA for coach-built Ferraris, and $475 million at Rolls Royce.