Aboard The $250 Million Superyacht ‘Amadea’ With The World’s Youngest Real Estate Billionaire
It’s two days before the Monaco Grand Prix in early June, and Abbas Sajwani emerges from a golden elevator onto the main deck of his 348-foot superyacht, Amadea, in a white linen shirt and gray pants. He’s anchored the vessel—which he bought from the U.S. government at a secret auction last September, after it was seized from alleged Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov three years earlier—just off the coast of the postcard-sized principality, as many billionaires do during the summer.
Walking past the intricately inlaid teak walls, a bar carved out of marble from the Greek island of Thassos and a hand-painted baby grand piano—custom-made for the yacht by centuries-old, Paris-based piano maker Pleyel—he sits on a cream-colored couch, framed by the Mediterranean and the Monaco skyline. But the 27-year-old Dubai real estate scion is eager to talk about his real estate firm AHS Properties’ latest acquisition. “We bought the Shangri-La [Dubai] at the end of May for $300 million,” he says, adjusting his rimless glasses. “That shows you my personal conviction and faith in the Dubai market.”
The son of billionaire real estate tycoon Hussain Sajwani—who’s known as the “Donald of Dubai” and is a longtime friend of President Trump—he has forged his own path in the emirate’s rollercoaster real estate market. While his father's DAMAC has built more than 50,000 luxury units and has another 50,000-plus under construction, Abbas' AHS Properties, which he founded in 2021, has targeted the ultra-luxury sector. After initially buying and renovating villas in Dubai's posh Emirates Hills and Palm Jumeirah, he then started snapping up land along the Dubai Water Canal to build luxury residential towers, which now make up most of his portfolio. On top of his yachts and collection of mansions, it’s the basis of his estimated $1.9 billion fortune.
Like many real estate developers, Sajwani prefers to think about his trophy purchases in terms of location and scarcity. The Amadea is a perfect example: “When I was looking to buy a boat, it wasn’t one box I needed to tick,” he adds. “It was 10 boxes, and Amadea, for me, ticked most of them.”
Built in 2017 by the storied German shipyard Lürssen, Sajwani’s floating palace has six decks, including one with a glass “winter garden” designed to evoke an orangerie, with an outdoor hot tub. There is a cinema lounge with an adjacent firepit; a 10-meter infinity........
