A Qatari Billionaire Just Bought Silvio Berlusconi’s Sardinian Estate, Fake Volcano And All, For $395 Million

Qatar’s billionaire former prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, known as HBJ, has bought Villa Certosa in Sardinia, the estate long tied to former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Italian financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore puts the price at around €350 million, roughly $395 million, a steep discount from the original €500 million ($571 million) listing.

HBJ, whose fortune Forbes estimates at close to $5 billion, runs Constellation Hotels, a company that already owns luxury hotels and historic properties across Europe. Rather than moving in himself, he plans to convert Villa Certosa into a high-end resort.

The estate covers about 120 hectares on Sardinia’s Costa Smeralda, making it larger than Vatican City and roughly equal to 83 football pitches. The main residence, designed by architect Gianni Gamondi, spans 4,500 square metres and holds 126 rooms, with guest buildings and greenhouses spread across the rest of the grounds.

Berlusconi’s decades of additions turned the property into something closer to a private theme park: a football pitch, tennis and bocce courts, a private golf course, a helipad, a spa, a Greek-style amphitheatre, and seven pools including a five-pool seawater thalassotherapy area. Artificial lakes come complete with small islands, resident swans and a floating tiki bar, while a hidden grotto lets visitors arrive by boat through an underground tunnel away from cameras.

None of it comes cheap to run. Maintenance costs around €8 million a year, electricity bills alone reach €1.3 million, and the estate carries a €94 million mortgage on top of needing its own private desalination plant for water.