Buyer of world's most expensive home revealed

It's not a celebrity or a Wall Street tycoon, but a Saudi prince.

The buyer of the world's most expensive home, which sold in 2015 for $422 million, has been revealed by The New York Times to be Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the next in line to the Saudi Arabian throne.

The Crown Prince has been on a spending spree in recent years, also splashing out on a Leonardo da Vinci painting for $688 million and a $653 million yacht.

The revelations are awkwardly timed for the prince, who is currently on an anti-corruption and austerity drive in his home country. He's gone so far as to arrest wealthy businessmen, government officials and even other members of the royal family on suspicion of corruption - although they're being held in the luxurious surroundings of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh.

His fantastical French home, however, is as far from austerity as you can get.

Although it's styled like a 17th-century French chateau, it was actually completed in 2011 and has every possible modern luxury. Along with 10 bedroom suites, a library, a grand reception room with 16-metre-high frescoed ceilings and a meditation room under the moat, it's also equipped with both indoor and outdoor pools, a 3000-bottle wine cellar, a cinema, a squash court, two ballrooms and a nightclub. Its 22 hectares of grounds include a fountain covered in gold leaf, marble statues and a hedged labyrinth.

The fountains, sound systems, lights and air conditioning are all controlled by iPhone.

For all its luxury, however, the house stands empty most of the time, according to locals.