Why branded residential developments could
transform mass-market housing
The public witnessed the premiere
of MINI Living’s first permanent
development at the end of Novem-
ber 2019, an event that heralds an
era of ‘household brands’ truly
living up to that title.
MINI’s live/work/play
space in Shanghai will open fully
in April 2020. Situated in the city’s
Jing’an district, the project occu-
pies 7,600 m^2 of a former paint
factory. Designed in partnership
with Universal Design Studio, the
programme stretches across five
buildings, comprising 45 apart-
ments, as well as a restaurant,
shops, urban farm, a co-working
space and cultural centre. There
will of course be an attendant
fleet of MINIs. If Shanghai proves
a success, the car maker plans to
open many more such compounds
around the world.
The idea of consumer
brands creating their own residen-
tial developments is not new, but it
has recently taken off in a big way.
A report by international estate
agent Savills found that the market
for branded residences had grown
198 per cent in the last decade.demographics they’re targeting.
The car maker doesn’t stipulate
who its ideal resident might be,
but the inference is certainly that
they’re a lot younger and less
materialistic than those who might
purchase an Armani apartment- though one would expect still
relatively wealthy in global terms.
Another entrant is Airbnb,
which has already started selling
condos in the Natiivo complex it
is building with a local developer
in Miami, set to be finished in
- Properties in the tower start
at €270,000, though that price
will naturally be offset by the
rental income generated through
short stays – the apartments are
designed with sharing in mind
and, because the buildings are
classified as hotels, there are
no statutory limitations on the
number of days they can be rented
out short-term.
Many are also waiting to
see what will come from Amazon’s
2018 investment in home builder
Plant Prefab, which focuses on
making affordable family dwell-
ings. The e-commerce giant previ-
A record 9,000 units across 21
countries were built in 2019. With
nearly 70 schemes due to be
completed in 2020, that record will
likely be broken again.
Thus far these have mostly
been at the luxury end of the
market. The space is dominated
by high-end hospitality brands
such as Mandarin Oriental,
Accor and Four Seasons. More
recently luxury fashion brands
such as Armani, Cavalli, Versace
and Missoni have built or are
building residential properties
in high-net-worth hotspots such
as Miami, Dubai and London.
And as we featured two issues
ago, premium auto brands such
as Porsche and Aston Martin are
following suit. Savills even reports
that it has been in consultation
with publisher Condé Nast about
developing projects linked to its
portfolio of titles, which includes
Vogue, Vanity Fair, AD, Wired,
Ta t l e r and GQ.
But as MINI’s venture
suggests, the market is now widen-
ing in terms of both the types of
brands entering this space and theMINI is using its live/work/play
space in Shanghai to determine
the concept’s success before
potentially expanding to other
locations.1
ously partnered with developers
like Tishman Speyer to prebake
their smart home products into
residences.
It’s these mass-market
brands that could have the most
dramatic effect on who provides
housing in the future. At the top of
the market, scale is by definition
limited, and these developments
offer few innovations beyond the
translation of aesthetic princi-
ples between disparate sectors
For MINI, Airbnb or Amazon,
however, the appeal is less in sell-
ing a standalone residential unit
and more in tying consumers into
their wider product ecosystem.
Each offers purchasers added core
value, be it seamlessly integrating
mobility services, removing barri-
ers to generating rental income
or making the provision of goods
as convenient as possible. That’s
a model that only makes sense
for brands when such properties
are both affordable and built at
scale. PMCo
ur
tesy (^) o
f (^) M
IN
I (^) L
ivi
ng
14 Business of Design