A Russian billionaire spent €500m for a villa in Nice, smashing the record for the most expensive house in the world according to the Independent.
The cream-coloured villa, set in 20 acres of gardens overlooking Cap Ferrat, near Villefranche-sur-Mer, was originally built for King Leopold II of Belgium.
Its new owner is said to be a Russian oil oligarch but not – despite rumours on the internet – Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea FC, who already owns a €100m mansion near Antibes.
The new Russian super-rich have been jostling one another to buy large properties on the Côte d'Azur in recent years but previous sale prices have never exceeded €200m. The highest house price officially recorded is the £100m paid by the Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal for a mansion in Kensington Palace Gardens last year. The unnamed Russian billionaire has paid almost four times as much for the Villa Léopolda.
"It has become surreal," one estate agent told the newspaper Le Parisien. "You daren't offer these people a house which costs less than €100m or they boot you out... and not very politely."

The villa belonged to the widow of Edmond Safra, the billionaire Jewish banker, who died in a mysterious fire at his Monaco flat in 1999
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