How celebrity designers like Jade Jagger and Kate Moss have turned branded residences into ‘collector’s items’
Luxury residential developments offered for sale by brands such as Marriott, YOO and Philippe Starck are proving to be sound investments and can offer peace of mind to those buying into an unknown marketplace
Everyone enjoys the services and amenities provided by a luxury hotel – but what if they were available to you at home?
That’s the idea behind branded residences, homes which are usually located on the same site as a hotel, or even inside the hotel itself.
Branded residences are luxury residential developments offered for sale by hotel brands such as Marriott – the hotel operator with the largest slice of the market – and non-hotel brands like YOO, a company formed by designer Philippe Starck and international property entrepreneur John Hitchcox to develop design-focused homes with hotel-style services and amenities.
The residences offer buyers use of the hotel’s facilities, or in YOO’s case, provide similar facilities within a stand-alone development.
There are around 400 such developments around the world, mainly in the United States and Asia, with a smaller number in Europe.
Around 85 per are directly connected to hotel brands, and most are in prime locations in major cities such as London, Dubai and Bangkok.
The Royal Atlantis in Dubai, which cost US$1.4 billion to build, is poised to rank among some of the Middle East’s top architectural icons. Crown Resorts is building up to 82 residences at its One Barangaroo tower overlooking Sydney’s Harbour Bridge and Opera House.
When people are buying second homes abroad, it can be difficult to understand the property laws, taxes and the rules of the foreign country
Attracted by the convenience factor and design values, homebuyers are willing to pay more than the market rate for non-branded developments in the same area – sometimes upwards of 30 per cent more, and, occasionally, over 100 per cent more in developing countries – to buy into the brand idea.