Their superyacht is so big they practice golf in it, their palace is triple the size of the Pentagon and their fleet of private jets could rival an airline.
The Abu Dhabi royal family, collectively worth more than Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates combined, live a life so luxurious it’s almost beyond comprehension.
The royals, known as the House of Nahyan, rule Abu Dhabi — a small but exceptionally oil-rich emirate in the Middle East which is the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
The Al Nahyan family owns six percent of the world’s oil reserves and makes investments in everything from sporting teams to Rihanna’s lingerie line.
Luxury Launches — a website focused on extravagance and opulence — has documented their eye-watering wealth.
A staggering palace and property empire
The crown jewel in the Al Nahyan family’s property empire is Qaṣr Al-Waṭan, the presidential palace of the United Arab Emirates, located in Abu Dhabi.
The $475 million, 380,000-square-meter palace boasts a facade of white granite and limestone. Inside, it is home to a towering 37-meter-wide dome and a chandelier made of 350,000 pieces of crystal.
Construction on the palace was completed in 2017 and it was opened to the public in 2019. Its eastern wing contains a “House of Knowledge”, home to artefacts of cultural, religious and political significance, while the western wing is used for official meetings.
The presidential palace is only one of several palaces owned by the Abu Dhabi royal family worldwide, which also includes the Chateau de Baillon, north of Paris.
The impressive portfolio doesn’t end at palaces, however. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who ruled Abu Dhabi until his death last year, was nicknamed the “landlord of London” for his properties which spanned some of England’s most expensive neighbourhoods.
According to one report, by 2015, the Al-Nahyan property empire sat just behind the UK’s own royal family in terms of its London assets, with a list of houses estimated to be worth almost A$10 billion.
Enough private jets to start an airline
The royal family’s presidential fleet comprises of eight aircraft, including an Airbus A320-200 and three Boeing 787-9s.
The personal collection of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan alone boasts an $478 million Boeing 747 and $176 million Boeing 787 with enough room for the entire royal family.
Details of the private planes have not been made public, but such aircraft often boast more luxuries than one could ever need in the air — including several cabins, meeting rooms, entertainment rooms, luxury bathrooms and spas.
Superyachts to make Jeff Bezos jealous
While Jeff Bezos and his rumoured fiancee Lauren Sanchez recently debuted their new $500 million superyacht, the Abu Dhabi royal family has climbed several steps higher.
The royals own three of the top 10 largest yachts in the world — Azzam, Blue and Topaz, now known as A+.
Azzam, the world’s largest superyacht, was built for Sheikh Khalifa. The 590-foot (180m) yacht accommodates more than 100 people and boasts a golf training room, exquisite mother of pearl inlay and a specially designed chandelier that doesn’t rattle when the boat is in action.
It took four years and 4000 people to build the mammoth yacht, which is as fast as a navy frigate and burns an estimated 13 tons of fuel every hour.
The $597 million, 525-foot (160m) Blue, meanwhile, is the fourth largest yacht in the world.
Its owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also owns the $A660 million A+, which has been borrowed by Leonardo DiCaprio. A+ is rumoured to boast a dance floor, beach club, gym and wellness centre, complete with a spa, jacuzzi, steam room and beauty salon.
A museum-worthy car collection
The royal family owns a seemingly never-ending fleet of cars, split across four museums in the UAE and Morocco.
The fleet includes the personal collection of Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan al Nahyan, which alone comprises more than 700 vehicles. That includes the world’s largest SUV — an outlandish 10-wheel, 24-tonne beast — as well as a 6.4-meter-tall Willis Jeep.
Sheikh Mansour, meanwhile, has stakes in Ferrari and Daimler AG as well as a luxury car collection that includes five Bugatti Veyrons, a Ferrari 599XX, McLaren MC12, Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR and a Lamborghini Reventon.
A Premier League football flub
The Abu Dhabi United Group, an investment company for the Abu Dhabi royals owned by Sheikh Mansour, owns English football team Manchester City.
The group purchased the club for $255 million from Thaksin Shinawatra, the former prime minister of Thailand, in September 2008.
ADUG also has an 81 percent majority stake in the City Football Group, which controls Manchester City, Mumbai City, Melbourne City and New York City football clubs.
A second version of the Louvre
The family opened the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the largest art museum on the Arabian peninsula and the only Louvre in the world outside Paris.
The museum purports to bridge the gap between Western and Eastern art, with a collection that includes a sculpture of a Bactrian princess dating to 3000BC, Breton Boys Wrestling by Paul Gaugin and Leonardo da Vinci’s La Belle Ferronnièr.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
