BuzzBuzzHome Corp.
July 31, 2011

Pop quiz! How large do you think the world’s biggest house is?

If you answered 2,152,782 square feet then you’re either the Sultan of Brunei or a very good guesser!

Of course, we’re using “house” in a loose sense, the place is obviously a palace. Built for the Sultan of Brunei, his wife and twelve children, the palace contains 1,788 rooms and 257 bathrooms.

For those who haven’t looked at a map in awhile, Brunei is a small country that, aside from a coast on the South China Sea, is completely surrounded by Malaysia. It just happens to have a very very wealthy royal family.

Your first question is probably “why?” Why does something like this exist? Well, the palace isn’t just used as a residence, it also functions as the seat of Brunei’s government and is the location of the prime minister’s office. This somewhat justifies the size… emphasis on the somewhat.

Your second question likely is “how many cars can fit in the garage.” Answer: 110. Not bad at all.

Let’s break down a few more interesting factoids about the world’s biggest home:

  • The palace contains 49 acres of floor space
  • The Sultan keeps a collection of 200 polo ponies on the premise
  • How many swimming pools is too many swimming pools? Five. Five is too many. But that’s how many the Sultan and the fam need
  • There’s a mosque within the palace that can accommodate 1,500 people and a banquet hall that can host a party of 4,000

To give you a little more context, the White House has 55,000 square feet of floor space and contains 132 rooms and Buckingham Palace has 830,000 square feet of floor space and 775 rooms.

So what we’re saying is, when it comes to palaces and national estates, the Sultan of Brunei (picture on the right) is kicking the world’s ass.

The Sultan, whose name is Hassanal Bolkiah, also owns a private Boeing 747 and what is probably the largest collection of luxury automobiles in the world (between 3,000 and 4,000). Too bad he can’t fit them all in his tiny 110 car garage, should have built a bigger one!

Alright, if you drop your jaw one more time you might break it, but hopefully you can handle one more picture: 

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