In today’s age, we are used to seeing huge skyscrapers and expensive company headquarters. The world progresses rapidly, and it’s now possible to create absolutely ginormous buildings that can serve as shopping malls, apartments complexes, production factories, hotels, etc.
However, some buildings just take the cake when talking about the amount of money that was spent into building them. Today, we’ll be taking a look at a top 10 buildings list, ranked by their constructions cost. Keep in mind that we are listing the prices during their build, not current, inflation-adjusted ones.
City of Dreams, casino opened in 2010 in Macau, China is also opening our today’s list, in a tie with another Macau property. The total building cost of the gigantic casino was around 2,4 billion US dollars. The casino has 450 gambling tables, and over 1500 slot machines, and of course, restaurants and retail spaces. Some of its attractions include the Vquarium, a huge, 11 tons heavy video wall, The Bubble Fountain, and the Dancing Water Theater, that has one of the world’s largest pools in the world.
10) Venetian Macau, Macau – $2,4 Billion
As mentioned, the second Macau property on the list also cost around $2,4 billion. Venetian Macau is the world’s largest casino with 550,000 square feet of casino space. It has 3400 slot machines and 800 gambling tables, roughly double than the previous entry, City of Dreams. The casino obviously has some hotel suites ready for their guests, precisely 2905 of them. The largest, most-expensive one has no less than 4 bedrooms for the premium guests that rent it.
8) Wynn Resort, Las Vegas – $2,7 Billion
You totally expected Las Vegas on the list, didn’t you? Well, you were correct.  Wynn is a resort (casino included, of course), located at the Strip in Las Vegas. Wynn has a total of 4750 rooms, an 111,000 square feet casino, nightclubs, restaurants and various stores. Of course it also has a golf course and some villas, if you really feel like spending money. It spreads over a total area of 215 acres. For comparison sake, an average golf course size is around 75 acres. The resort has 5 stars, and has been awarded numerous times for its restaurants and hotels. It is considered one of the best hotels in the world. Recently they’ve announced a new expansion of the hotel that will add a 1000 more rooms to the resort, and also feature some water-related attractions such as water skiing.
7) Emirates Palace, Abu Dhabi – $3 Billion
The Emirates Palace is one of the most luxurious hotels in the United Arab Emirates, with the building investment of no less than 3,000,000,000 USD. The Palace that refers to itself as “above 5 stars” has considerably less rooms than rest of the hotels from this list. A mere 394 rooms are there to suit the guests of this extraordinary hotel. However, each and every one of them is very luxurious, with golden furnishing, most definitely above a standard hotel room. Although the hotel thinks it deserves more than 5 rates, that isn’t possible so they’ve settled for a nice, 5 star mark.
6) One World Trade Center, New York – $3,8 Billion
After the 9/11 attacks and destruction, a new building has started being built in November 2006. It has officially opened two years ago, and is one of the most recognizable NY symbols today. One WTC is 1776 feet tall, making it the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, and the 6th tallest one in the entire world. Obviously that size symbolizes the year 1776, in which the American Declaration of Independence was signed.
5) The Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas – $3,9 Billion
Another luxury Las Vegas resort makes the list, this one being over a billion dollars more expensive than the Wynn Resort. The Cosmo opened in 2010 and consists of two highrise towers next to one another. It’s often called the best hotel in the world, a title that definitely suits a gigantic resort that has almost 3000 rooms, a huge 111,000 sq ft casino, restaurants, clubs, spa and fitness centers and much, much more to offer. Cosmo also contains one of the most famous clubs in the world, “Marquee Nightclub & Dayclub“, which is the highest grossing club in the United States.
4) RWS, Singapore – $4,9 Billion
The fourth most expensive building in the world, Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore was built in 2010. What’s incredible is that the entire complex was finished in just 34 months… that has to be some kind of a record. It includes a casino, theme and life parks, diners, villas, world’s largest oceanarium and many other attractions. One-day access to the casino costs roughly $75, or you can get a year worth of entries for 20 times that (cca. $1500).
3) Marina Bay Sands, Singapore – $5,5 Billion
The Marina Bays Sands is a resort containing 2561 guest rooms, a museum, two theaters, seven exclusive restaurants, and one of world’s largest casinos. Some of its attractions are the infinity pool, over 300 stores for shopping, two Crystal Pavillions, gondola rides through the resorts and much more. You’d kinda expect that from the world’s 3rd most expensive building, wouldn’t you?
2) Abraj Al-Bait, Mecca – $15 Billion
And we’re finally in Mecca, where the world’s top two most expensive buildings are located. The cheaper one being the Abraj Al-Bait Towers, with a construction cost of $15 billion. The Towers opened in 2011, after a 7 year construction process. As with all others luxurious resorts, Abraj Al-Bait has numerous guest suits, restaurants and other entertainment venues. The tower clock located at the top of the building is both the highest one and the one with the largest face. Included in the building are also an Islamic Museum and an Observatory used during the holy months to watch the moon.
1)Â Hajj Mosque, Mecca – $100+ Billion
Across the Abraj Al-Bait stands the Hajj Mosque (The Sacred Mosuqe), also known as Masjid al-Haram. Â The mosque is quite obviously the largest mosque in the entire world, and surrounds one of Islam’s holy places, the Kaaba. The Sacred Mosque is by far the most expensive structure in the world, costing over 100 billion USD, a price that is still rising due to its expansions. The mosque is used as a common direction for Muslims to pray and also as a pilgrimage. It can suit 900,000 worshippers during the year, and no less than 4 million during the Hajj period.
Honorable Mentions
The Antilla building, that costed 2 billion USD in 2010 is the private home of Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man. It’s the world’s second most expensive home, right after the Buckingham Palace.
Las Vegas’ famous hotel, the Bellagio, didn’t make the list because it’s building price was around 1,6 billion USD. Bellagio is one of the most recognized symbols of Las Vegas.
The most expensive stadium ever built is the new Yankee Stadium, which cost around $1,5 billion during its construction. Another famous building that costed the same amount of money is the Burj Khalifa, world’s tallest structure, located in Dubai.
