Islands to superyatchs: 10 most luxurious asset buys of all time

Money for billionaires is never a problem. From Oracle CEO Larry Ellison to Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov have spared no expense in indulging their appetite for luxury assets such as private islands or top of-the-line superyachts.

Data from Wealth-X, an ultra high net worth (UHNW) intelligence provider, shows luxury yachts are the most popular luxury asset acquisition. Eight of the 10 billionaires in the list below own these luxury vessels.

At number one on the list is UAE President Khalifa Bin Zayed Bin Sultan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan (alsoknown as Sheikh Khalifa) who purchased the world’s largest megayacht Azzam in 2013 for a reported sumof $627 million. But here’s the interesting fact: Value of the yacht is merely 3.5 percent of Sheikh Khalifa’snet worth of $17.9 billion.Measuring a whopping 590-feet, Sheikh Khalifa’s Azzam is the biggest yacht in the world, beatingRussian tycoon Roman Abramovich’s 533-feet yacht Eclipse, which was the world’s biggest for the pastthree years.

Russian vodka tycoon Yury Shefler is fourth on the list with his luxury yacht Serene, an asset that -with a price tag of US$300 million - represents over 20 percent of his net worth of $1.6 billion.

Ellison’s $500 million acquisition of Lanai Island in Hawaii in 2012 ranks second on the list. He was named top billionaire island owner in June 2013, beating other billionaires such as Google’s CEO Larry Page and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.