Home may be where the heart is, but it’s also where luxury brands are increasingly taking up residence. We’re not talking furniture and bedding. It’s the buildings themselves.

Increasingly fashion and automobile companies with home and design divisions are licensing real estate developers to create residences that allow consumers to literally inhabit the brand. The developers get the aura of a luxury image; the brand owner gets revenue and – assuming all works out – a long-lasting “billboard” amidst a well-heeled clientele.

To be sure, branded residences have long been a licensing staple of hotel companies — the Sherry-Netherland residence opened on Fifth Avenue in New York in 1927 — that typically partner with local developers to create them.

Growing Business
There are expected to be 525 branded residences globally by year-end up from 450 in 2019, according to the real estate firm Savills; the vast majority (85%) carry hotel labels (i.e. Marriot, Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton). But while fashion and automobile labels accounted for just 13% of the branded residences open at the end of last year, they adorn 22% of those now under construction, Savills says.

Miami is now home to Porsche, Aston Martin and Fendi Chateau (seen above) residences; Missoni is slated to join the mix later this year with the 249-unit Missoni Baia complex. Damac Properties’ Versace Tower is expected to open later this year as London’s first fashion-branded residence. The topper may be the 19-unit complex being built above Armani’s flagship store on Fifth Avenue in New York that includes a residence for Giorgio Armani himself and is slated to open in 2024.

Regional Residences
The branded residences tend to cluster in regions with affluent consumers – Beijing and Dubai also are major markets – that also serve as bases for the brands’ retail stores.

The brand owners and developers go to various lengths to tighten the bonds between building and brand:

• The 308-condominium Residences by Armani/Casa project in Miami, developed by licensee Dezer Development and Related Group, opened last year — and took it a step farther by recently hosting a runway presentation of Giorgio Armani’s spring 2020 men’s and women’s collections.
• At Versace Tower, amenities such as spas feature doors inlaid with the brand’s Greek kay pattern and mosaic walls with its palm tree motif.
• Anyone willing to shell out $16 million-$50 million for a triplex at the Aston Martin residences in Miami gets a limited-edition Aston Martin Vulcan car worth $2.7 million thrown in to the deal.