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A penthouse in the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, is on the market for $49 million.
The home is about 2,300 feet off the ground, about 845 feet higher than the Empire State Building.
The listing agent told BI he's surprised at how many calls he's gotten from interested Americans.
One homeowner has the chance to live above the clouds.
It'll only cost about $49 million.
A penthouse on the 107th and 108th floors of Dubai's iconic Burj Khalifa — a skyscraper with offices, a luxury hotel, and restaurants — is on the market for 180 million United Arab Emirates dirhams, or about $49 million.
The duplex home is nearly 2,300 feet off the ground, while the Burj Khalifa stands at 2,722 feet tall. For context, the Empire State Building is a mere 1,454 feet tall. New York City's Central Park Tower is the world's tallest primarily residential building at 1,550 feet; its penthouse previously held the highest title.
We don't even know how many bedrooms or bathrooms the 21,000-square-foot residence will hold — that'll be up to the buyer.
"It hasn't got rooms or toilets or baths or kitchens or anything like that, so it's just concrete ceilings, concrete floors, and just glass all around," listing agent Asad Khan told Business Insider.
"The type of person that would look at it would be an investor, who will take on the project and then obviously do the fit-out according to their requirements," Khan, of Invest Dubai Real Estate, added.
The duplex also comes with an indoor pool, a private elevator, and 12 parking spaces.
Khan's client, investor Karl Haddad, purchased the unit in 2020 for an undisclosed amount from Mohamed Alabbar, a founder of Emaar Properties, which developed the Burj Khalifa.
Haddad, the chairman and CEO of IRC Invest, doesn't have the time to build out the unit because he's busy with other projects, Khan said.
When he officially listed the duplex earlier this year, Khan added, he was "overwhelmed" by the amount of Americans who expressed interest.
Managers and agents of athletes, from basketball players to NASCAR drivers, have requested more information about the home, Khan told BI.
One of them wasboxing legendFloyd Mayweather, he added.
"They're from various walks of life," Khan said. "We had a huge amount of inquiries in the US — and I don't know why that is."
The Burj Khalifa has 900 residential units ranging in price from 2.29 million United Arab Emirates dirhams (about $623,000) to 100 million United Arab Emirates dirhams (about $27.2 million), according to United Arab Emirates real-estate listings site Bayut.
Take a look at the highest penthouse in the world, nicknamed the Sky Palace.
Completed in 2010, the Burj Khalifa is 2,722 feet tall, making it the tallest building in the world.
The Burj Khalifa is 2,722 feet tall.
REUTERS/Mohammed Salam
New York City's Central Park Tower is the world's tallest primarily residential building at 1,550 feet.
The Burj Khalifa took six years to build between 2004 and 2010, costing about $1.5 billion, according to regional magazine Arabian Business.
Ex-pats dominate the workforce of the UAE, primarily working in the private sector.
TomasSereda/Getty Images
Emaar Properties, one of the largest real-estate firms in the United Arab Emirates, developed the project.
The Burj Khalifa was designed by architectAdrian Smith, who also designed Central Park Tower in New York and the 1,380-foot Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai.
The Burj Khalifa has residences, retail, office space, and a restaurant across its 163 floors.
The world's highest restaurant, Atmosphere, is on the 122nd floor of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It's open to the public.
AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili
The residences end on floor 108. Above that are corporate offices.
Below the residences is a 304-room Armani Hotel.
The entrance to the Armani Hotel in the Burj Khalifa.
KARIM SAHIB/Getty Images
According to the Armani Hotels website, a weekend stay in March costs between 1,650 United Arab Emirates dirhams and 22,500 United Arab Emirates dirhams a night (from $450 to $6,100).
Other amenities for residents of the tower include Japanese gardens and padel courts.
The bones of the unfinished penthouse.
IDRE
There are also three different observation decks in the building open to the public.
Floors 45 to 108 are private residences, topped by the two-floor penthouse on floors 107 and 108.
The upper floor of the unfinished penthouse.
IDRE
The residences range from studios to four-bedroom apartments.
The penthouse duplex for sale has a total of 21,000 square feet of space.
The unfinished penthouse.
IDRE
One of the floors has 7,000 square feet, and the other has 14,000 square feet, according to Khan.
It's the only unit in the building with a private indoor pool.
Interior concrete steps inside the penthouse lead to an indoor pool.
IDRE
It also comes with 12 parking spaces.
The penthouse's 360 views from above the clouds, though, might be its unique selling point.
A view from the penthouse.
IDRE
"On a clear day, you can see the mountains in Ras Al-Khaimah," Khan, the listing agent, told Business Insider. "You can see across the sea. You're looking down on all the other buildings below you — it's called 'Sky Palace' because you're above the clouds.'"
The seller, Karl Haddad, bought the property as an investment opportunity but had funding partners back out, so now he wants to sell.
The view out of the floor-to-ceiling windows.
IDRE
"He's busy with other projects and other businesses that he has and doesn't have the time to run such a project," Khan said. "He's not a developer, he's not a builder, or a designer — that's not his game. He's into investments."
Haddad officially put the penthouse on the market earlier this year.
A temporary setup in the penthouse.
IDRE
"We've been talking about selling since the middle of last year, and it's been floated around very softly," Khan said.
Khan said whoever buys the unit probably won't live in it and instead treat it as an investment.
Asad Khan of Invest Dubai Real Estate.
IDRE
"I don't think they're going to live in it because the kind of people that we've been approached by — these people are traveling all around the world, they're busy with their own lives in the US," Khan said. "I think it's more of a status symbol. 'I've got this,' or 'I will have this.' It just adds to the portfolio."
While the unit is unfinished, Khan thinks construction shouldn't take more than a year and a half to complete.
A rendering of a bathroom.
gtandi.co.uk
"The hard part is done," he said. "A project like this could potentially turn around within 12 months."
Khan believes that an investor has the potential to sell the penthouse for double its purchase price after it's complete.
Khan said he believes that the Dubai market is great for buyers who want to get a lot back from an investment.
"The supply is not there — the demand is there for buyers," he said. "Whoever takes this project on — and if they do it to the ultrawealthy level that it deserves — they will be rewarded accordingly."
It might be an American buyer who has the potential to create their dream home in the sky.
A rendering of a finished living space.
gtandi.co.uk
"It's a very iconic building," Khan said. "It's a world-class trophy asset. It's one-of-one and can't be replicated."
