Billionaire's daughter gets $88m penthouse

Former Citigroup chairman Sandy Weill listed his 626-sqm apartment at 15 Central Park West in New York for an astonishing A$87 million in November, promising to donate the proceeds of the sale to charity.

Now comes news that Ekaterina Rybolovleva, the 22-year-old daughter of Russian billionaire Dmitriy Rybolovlev, is buying the apartment.

Rybolovleva is currently studying at an undisclosed U.S. university and plans to stay in the apartment when visiting New York. A source familiar with the sale told Forbes she paid the full asking price of A$87 million setting a record for highest individual transaction in New York City history. (More From Yahoo!7 Finance: Amazing And Absurd Places For Rent)

Here is the official statement from her representatives:

"A company associated with Ekaterina Rybolovleva, daughter of a well-known businessman Dmitriy Rybolovlev, has signed a contract to purchase an apartment at 15 Central Park West, New York. The apartment is a condominium currently owned by the Sanford Weill Family."

The apartment, in one of the stylish post-war buildings in Manhattan, has 10 rooms including 4 bedrooms, a wraparound terrace of more than 2,000 sq. feet and 2 wood burning fireplaces.

"This sale is an outlier. It works out to be about A$12,800 per sq. foot, the highest on record, for anything, that has ever occurred," says Jonathan Miller, chief executive of real estate appraiser Miller Samuel, "What is ironic is that when Sandy Weill bought it for less than half this amount, he paid the highest price per sq foot to date in that building, around, A$6,300 per sq. foot. He is again setting a record." (More From Yahoo!7 Finance: Monster Billionaire Mansions)

The previous New York City record had been set back before the market crash when investor Christopher Flowers paid A$52 million for a townhouse at 4 east 75th Street. He resold the property on August 15 for just over A$35 million.

There were two other very notable sales in the city this year, according to Miller. Russian composer Igor Krutoy paid a record A$47 million for a condo at the Plaza in March, and a townhouse at 16 East 69th Street sold for A$47 million in July.

Rybolovleva is the second daughter of a billionaire to make huge real estate news this year. Back in July, heiress Petra Ecclestone, daughter of UK Formula One billionaire Bernie Ecclestone, apparently paid A$83 million for Spelling Manor, the 5,249-sqm mansion that was previously owned by Candy Spelling, widow of famed TV producer Aaron Spelling, whose works include the "Beverly Hills 90210," "Charlie's Angels," and "Dynasty" series. (More From Yahoo!7 Finance: Top 10 Highest Paid Government Leaders)

Rybolovleva's father Dmitriy sold the majority of his stake in Uralkali, the fertilizer business that made him rich, for US$6.5 billion in 2010. He is already known in U.S. real estate circles for his May 2008 purchase of Donald Trump's Palm Beach mansion, Maison de L'Amitie.

He paid US$95 million in cash for that residence, US$25 million less than what Trump had originally asked. It was apparently the largest single residence price concession of all time. He may not own that house much longer though. His wife Elena, who filed for divorce in Palm Beach court in 2009, is seeking transfer of ownership of the former Trump mansion. He himself spends much of his time at his home in Monaco and is likely to buy the struggling French football club, AS Monaco.