The $88m apartment: now the oligarchs take Manhattan

With panoramic views over Central Park, four bathrooms, a library and a chef's kitchen, it is not the average student accommodation.

Now New York's most expensive flat will serve as a bachelorette pad for a Russian heiress, after her billionaire father, Dmitry Rybolovlev, broke the city's real estate record by sealing an $88m (£56m) deal.

The 10-bedroom Manhattan penthouse, previously owned by the retired banker Sanford Weill, smashed the city's previous residential property record of $53m. Mr Weill paid $44m for the property in 2007. Mr Rybolovlev, who made his fortune selling fertiliser, is said to have bought the flat for his daughter Ekaterina, 22, a student at Harvard, to use when she visits the city. In 2008, he bought Donald Trump's 33,000 sq ft Florida estate – Maison L'Amitie – for $95m in cash.