There are many things you can buy for $34 million, in various parts of the world: towering castles, grand seaside mansions, grand, sprawling estates, fleets of Rolls-Royce Phantoms, even your own private jet.

In Dubai, $34 million buys you… tons of sand.

Anonymous croisos gave this outrageous amount to buy a piece of sand. It’s actually a vacant 2,275 square meter “beachfront” plot of land located on the luxury man-made seahorse-shaped Jumeirah Bay Island (center photo), which is now being redeveloped.

The piece of sand was owned by British businessman Umar Kamani, who bought it in 2021 for about $10 million and has now sold it for three times that amount, according to cnn.com.

“Jumeirah Bay is the most exclusive location in Dubai,” explained Andrew Cummings of Knight Frank Dubai, the estate agency that managed the sale.

“It’s aimed at ultra-high-income earners who are asking, ‘What’s the best piece I can buy?’ It represents the best in class for location and ownership in Dubai,” he said.

Jumeirah Bay Island is connected to the mainland via a 300m bridge. It has 128 plots that are almost empty and one of them, is the one that was sold for the outrageous price of 34 million dollars, which is about 31 million euros.

According to CNN, the new owner didn’t buy the strip of “gold” sand for nothing.

The goal is to make the floating island “like Beverly Hills or Los Angeles” – which is not unreasonable for Dubai.