Luxury Brand Apartments Blow Up in Asia

Branded residences that have made a splash in domestic markets like Miami and New York City are beginning to expand on the other side of the world.

These luxury abodes, developed in partnership with premium consumer brands like Porsche and Bugatti, are headed for major growth, with nearly 1,000 projects planned across the globe in the next three years, Real Estate Asia reported. In Asia, Thailand and Vietnam are purportedly the new hotspots for such living arrangements.

“Globally, there are currently about 700 to 800 branded residences either completed, selling or being marketed,” Benjamin Grint, global director of sales and partnerships at Bangkok-based Brand Atlas, told Real Estate Asia. “That’s the total over the past 50 years. For the next three years, there will be 900.”

Southeast Asia has emerged as the locus of such growth, bolstered by developments like the Porsche Design Tower in Bangkok and expansion of projects by Four Seasons, The Ritz-Carlton, Mandarin Oriental, W Residences and Nobu in the region.

These projects are growing in Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore thanks in part to top-tier amenities and hotel-style services. Vietnam leads Asia when it comes to branded residences in the pipeline, boasting 27 percent of active and announced projects; Thailand has 21 percent, according to C9 Hotelworks.

“Southeast Asia is going to be a real hub for branded residences,” Grint said.

These units might be attractive to clients who already consume the brands associated with the developments, Grunt told Real Estate Asia.

“If it’s the Aston Martin Residences in Miami, for example, 90 percent of the people who bought there already own an Aston Martin car. If it’s the Bugatti Residences in Dubai, it’s similar—it’s that aspirational brand people are buying into,” he said. “If it’s Four Seasons in Bangkok, lots of people who own [units] at the Four Seasons there have also bought into the Four Seasons Residences in London.”

In the first half of the year, branded residences in Asia hit a record value of $30.7 billion, covering 38,893 units across 178 projects, according to a report by C9 Hotelworks cited by Real Estate Asia. Another 67,353 units across 283 projects are in the works. The branded residence market on the continent grew 10 percent each year over the past five years, with 57 percent of projects sharing locations with hotels.

— Chris Malone Méndez