Ukraine’s richest man has set a record for property in Britain, spending $213 million on two London flats.

The flats cover 2,323 square metres across three floors of a luxury development overlooking Hyde Park, and have been bought by Rinat Akhmetov.

The oligarch plans to combine them to make a penthouse, including a further $93.6 million in interior improvements, according to the London Evening Standard.

Monaco remains the world’s most expensive residential location, followed by London, according to Knight Frank and Citi Private Bank.

According the report’s global index of luxury home prices, $US65,600 per square metre is the average host of a house or apartment in the tiny European microstate.

Monaco’s biggest deal last year was the purchase of La Belle Epoque, a 17,500-square-foot (1,600-square-meter) penthouse, for 240 million euros ($340 million) from Christian and Nick Candy in September

The WSJ reported Thursday that Russian billionaire Yuri Milner has paid the highest known price ever for a single-family U.S. home — a whopping $100 million.

The mansion is a French-style chateau in the Loire style set on 18 acres in hills overlooking San Francisco Bay

The home has five bedrooms, a ballroom, wine cellar, gym, tennis courts, spa and pools inside and outside. There’s also a guest house on the property.

Hong Kong’s Severn Road, a winding street of mansions and tony apartments, is still the priciest address on the planet.

For the second year running, Financial News has determined that properties on Severn Road cost more per square foot than those anywhere else.

Properties on Severn Road were valued at US$78,200 a square meter (about US$8,689 a square foot), up from US$70,000 in last year’s survey.

On Uruguay’s Atlantic coast, a beach town is booming with celebrities and high-rolling foreigners willing to pay millions of dollars for a piece of this bohemian but ultra-chic getaway.

In the past decade, Jose Ignacio — 180 kilometers (110 miles) east of Montevideo — has become a refuge for members of the jet set in the region who want to escape noisy Punta del Este, the old line resort 40 kilometers (25 miles) away.

Colombian singer Shakira, television producer Marcelo Tinelli, Argentine magnate Amalia Fortabat and French actress Dominique Sanda own properties in the area.

New York‘s storied Chelsea Hotel, the classic haunt of artists and hell-raising performers, is for sale and, perhaps, so is its soul.

The 12-floor building with the neon sign “Hotel Chelsea” is a landmark in Manhattan thanks to its long list of famous residents.

Playwright Arthur Miller and singers Janis Joplin and Patti Smith were among those living there. Poet Dylan Thomas died there, as did Nancy, the girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious.