Luxury Hotel-Branded Apartments Entice Buyers
Kanebridge News
Share Button

Luxury Hotel-Branded Apartments Entice Buyers

Overall hotel-branded residences more than doubled between 2010 and 2020.

By Ruth Bloomfield
Wed, Aug 11, 2021 2:51pmGrey Clock 4 min

Luxury residences attached to five-star hotels have long been a hit with apartment buyers who wanted a place to live with access to hotel services and amenities.

Now, developers are finding that they can sell units at above-market rates for a luxury hotel branded residence, even if there’s no accompanying hotel.

U.K. developer Finchatton transformed the former British headquarters of the U.S. Navy into the Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts’ first stand-alone private residences, featuring 37 homes with sales prices starting at 17.5 million pounds, approx. $33 million.

The project completed construction in London’s Mayfair neighbourhood in 2019. Despite an interruption in sales caused by the pandemic, “only a handful” of units remain unsold, said a spokeswoman for the selling agent Knight Frank.

Mandarin Oriental is poised to open its first stand-alone branded residences in New York City, Beverly Hills and Barcelona. The U.S. residential units are expected to hit the market in the fall, the company said.

In Utah, the St. Regis Deer Valley, which opened in 2009, has recently added private residences to the resort. Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. is working on a number of stand-alone branded residences under its Waldorf Astoria and Conrad brands and plans to announce at least one project within the year, a spokeswoman said.

Overall, the number of hotel-branded residences more than doubled between 2010 and 2020. The sector added 52,000 homes in 370 separate developments, according to real-estate firm Savills PLC.

Originally, these residences offered a convenient way for property developers to fund the building of high-end hotels, which can be costly and challenging to finance through conventional loans. Instead, proceeds from apartment sales help cover the hotel construction costs.

“If I put your brand on it, it will help me sell these residences faster and for a higher price,” said Tim Grisius, Marriott International Inc.’s global mergers and acquisition and real estate officer.

Marriott has built 17 stand-alone luxury residences worldwide, in places like Sunny Isles Beach in South Florida and Bodrum, Turkey, under its Ritz-Carlton brand. It has another 17 projects in the pipeline.

‘If I put your brand on it, it will help me sell these residences faster and for a higher price.’

— Tim Grisius, Marriott International

As these residences grew in popularity, real-estate firms found that the units attracted wealthy buyers even without the full slate of hotel amenities. That’s because buyers of private residences tend to have a strong loyalty to the luxury brand and believe that attention to detail will be high, said Rupert des Forges, head of prime central London developments at Knight Frank.

“They feel that the brand would not put its name to something if they could not provide the right level of service,” he said.

Branded residences usually offer much the same services as a luxury hotel but on a smaller scale, including spa facilities, a bar and restaurant, movie theatre, and private dining rooms. Hotel-trained staff run the property and concierge, promising the same level of service to owners as to hotel guests.

Apartment buyers are often willing to pay a premium for branded residences compared with other luxury buildings, though the level of that premium varies. In London, a city overflowing with prime apartment buildings, Mr. des Forges said the extra cost of buying the property, compared with an equally high-end new apartment, was marginal.

In the Alps, however, five-star brands are increasingly experimenting with residences in ski resorts. Jeremy Rollason, head of real-estate agent Savills’s ski department, said these residences far outdo the resorts’ existing apartment buildings. He estimates that buyers have to pay premiums of between 10% and 20% for these “ultraluxury” homes.

The Mandarin Oriental Residences, Barcelona, is part of the luxury brand’s first wave of stand-alone residences. PHOTO: COURTESY OF MANDARIN ORIENTAL RESIDENCES|, BARCELONA.

Hotel residences have existed at least since 1927, when New York City’s Sherry-Netherland opened. But it wasn’t until the 1990s that the sector really took off. By last year, branded residences were located in more than 60 countries, according to Knight Frank.

After tapping demand in traditional coastal and city locations, developers are now building these residences in upscale ski resorts in Europe and the U.S.

Hard Rock Café International Inc. opened its first European ski resort and residences in Davos, Switzerland, in 2017, while Ritz-Carlton plans to open in 2026 a resort plus residences in Zermatt, Switzerland.

While the pandemic has slowed most international travel, Marriott’s Mr. Grisius said that demand for residences had actually increased, possibly at the expense of traditional hotels.

“People are not travelling as much,” he said. “Our residences are fuller than they usually are.”

The library at 20 Grosvenor Square, Four Seasons’ stand-alone branded residences in London.
PHOTO: FINCHATTON 

Reprinted by permission of The Wall Street Journal, Copyright 2021 Dow Jones & Company. Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Original date of publication: August 10, 2021



MOST POPULAR
11 ACRES ROAD, KELLYVILLE, NSW

This stylish family home combines a classic palette and finishes with a flexible floorplan

35 North Street Windsor

Just 55 minutes from Sydney, make this your creative getaway located in the majestic Hawkesbury region.

Related Stories
Property
London’s Luxury Property Market Turns a Corner
By CASEY FARMER 29/03/2024
Property
The crafty workarounds would-be buyers use to get into the market
By Bronwyn Allen 28/03/2024
Property
Australian mortgage holders defying predictions and managing debt
By Bronwyn Allen 26/03/2024
London’s Luxury Property Market Turns a Corner

After more than a year, prices have finally levelled out in prime central London, while outer London saw a small uptick in high-end prices from the previous quarter

By CASEY FARMER
Fri, Mar 29, 2024 2 min

The first quarter of the year brought some long-awaited signs of recovery in London’s luxury housing market, offering the first positive quarterly price growth since September 2022, according to a report from Savills on Wednesday.

After six consecutive quarterly price falls, luxury home prices in central London levelled out in the first three months of the year, with a 0.1% quarterly uptick in prices. The £3 million to £5 million (US$3.79 million to US$6.32 million) market saw a slightly larger increase of 0.3%.

Outer London’s luxury market saw greater quarterly price growth, with home prices up 0.8%, as some stability returned to mortgage costs and lured more buyers back to the market, according to the report.

All of this is evidence that the market is “in early stages of recovery,” according to Lucian Cook, head of residential research at Savills.

“The outlook for the housing market has certainly improved, partly because the mortgage market has recovered more quickly than expected,” Cook said in the report. “With the first rate cut rapidly coming into view and recessionary risks easing, greater stability has returned to the cost of mortgage debt, which has positively impacted domestic prime markets, where many buyers rely on borrowing, most notably in leafy outer prime South and West London, as well as the commuter belt.”

Outside of London, prices across the U.K. saw no quarterly growth heading into the beginning of the spring market, which is expected to bring higher levels of buyer activity in many regions.

Suburban regions saw prices dip just 0.1%, while urban areas—like Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, and Bath and Oxford in England—saw prices increase by 0.6%.

Cook said regional buyers are more likely to be concerned about market uncertainty than London buyers in the lead up to the general election.

“As a result, buyers are still expected to be less committed until the dust has settled,” he said.

MOST POPULAR
11 ACRES ROAD, KELLYVILLE, NSW

This stylish family home combines a classic palette and finishes with a flexible floorplan

Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts

Related Stories
Money
8 Strange Things in Today’s Inflation Report
By Angela Palumbo 15/11/2023
Money
Don’t Roll Your Eyes: Looking the Part Could Land You That Job
By ANNE MARIE CHAKER 05/12/2023
Money
2024’s Top ASX Stock Picks: 5 Opportunities You Can’t Miss
By Bronwyn Allen 08/12/2023
0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyReturn to Shop