Inman

Which world leaders could afford to buy their famous residences?

Getty Images and Walter Bibikow

The White House is one of the world’s most famous and coveted residences, but how much is it worth? According to UK-based real estate website Emoov’s latest analysis, the president’s residence would go on the market for $510.32 million — making it the 11th most expensive ministerial mansion in the world.

Ahead of The White House is England’s Buckingham Palace ($6.3 billion), Brunei’s Istana Nurul Iman ($3.8 billion), South Korea’s The Blue House ($1.89 billion), France’s Elyśee Palace ($1.85 billion), and Russia’s Grand Kremlin Palace ($1.67 billion).

The values were calculated based on data from Wikipedia, Love Property and Numbeo, and a 30 percent premium was added to represent the “historical and cultural” importance of the residences, Emoov said.

“If you’re running the country, you don’t usually go home to an average three-bedroom semi in the suburbs,” the report read. “Instead, you’re more likely to retreat to an opulent mansion that would quite literally take your breath away.”

“Calculating the cost per square [foot], we estimate that the overall floor plan of Buckingham Palace is around [82,882 square feet], which makes the cost per [foot] square a staggering [$83,414],” the report read. “That’s almost 5000% more than the average price per square [foot] in Central London, which comes in at [$14,825].”

“However, the [$3.8 billion] Istana Nurul Iman residence is much better value for money,” it continued. “At [220,000 square feet], it’s almost three times as big as Buckingham Palace and that results in a much lower price per square [foot]; [$18,980.86].”

With an estimated list price of $510.32 million, The White House’s value breaks down to $99,956 per square foot — 1,345 percent above the average land value per foot in Washington, D.C., ($6,916). The monthly mortgage, with a 20-year fixed-interest rate of 3.86 percent, would be a whopping $2,402,831 per month.

However, living in The White House would be quite a deal compared to the more than $12 million – $28 million per month needed to live in the Grand Kremlin Palace ($12 million per month), the Istana Nurul Iman ($19 million per month) and Buckingham Palace ($28 million).

“Based on the average total cost of the 20 residences in the study, we calculate that you’d need to have at least [$1.04 billion] in the bank to be able to buy a home worthy of a world leader, with the price per [foot] square averaging [$66,885] across the board,” the report explained. “We calculated the land value of a ministerial mansion to be almost 10 times more than the average price per square [foot] in each of the 20 cities in the study which comes in at [$6,451] per square [foot].”

With that in mind, only six world leaders, including President Trump, could make an all-cash offer on their current homes. Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Angela Merkel could also buy their residences.

Based on an alleged net worth of $2.1 billion, Trump could buy The White House four times. However, the President’s net worth has been hotly contested with some estimates ranging from as high as $3.1 billion to as low as $650 million.

Email Marian McPherson