“Knight Frank counts 611 live branded residence schemes in 2025 and expects 1,019 by 2030. The evidence says the partner's operating system, not the name on the lobby wall, is what sells.
The partner supplies a system, not a nameplate
A branded residence sells because the partner supplies a system a developer cannot invent: standards, staff and an answer when something goes wrong.
Knight Frank's 2025 survey of nearly 80 luxury brands and more than 1,000 schemes is the evidence base for what follows.
What the survey actually measured
The clearest public reading of this market is Knight Frank's Global Branded Residence Survey 2025, published on 8 September 2025 by Liam Bailey. It assessed the portfolios of nearly 80 luxury brands, from established hotel groups such as Four Seasons and Ritz-Carlton to non-hotel entrants including Bentley and Aston Martin, and reviewed more than 1,000 live and pipeline schemes across 83 countries. Savills publishes a second annual tracker, currently the 2025/2026 edition.
One number corrects the popular impression. Hotel brands account for 83 percent of existing branded residences and are forecast to stay around 80 percent. Car marques make the headlines; hotel operators hold the inventory. That distinction matters at the point of choosing a partner, because a hotel brand arrives with an operating standard attached, while a lifestyle name arrives with a story and a licensing contract.
The growth curve, with its dates
Growth of this kind is easy to assert and hard to check, so the four figures below carry the year and the house that published them. The unit projection for 2030 is a forecast, and the article labels it as one.
169schemes
Branded residence schemes worldwide in 2011
The baseline for the sector's growth curve. Knight Frank, 2025.
611schemes
Live branded residence schemes in 2025
Knight Frank, Global Branded Residence Survey 2025.
1,019schemes
Forecast live schemes by 2030
A projection, not a count. Knight Frank, 2025.
162,000units
Units projected by 2030, from just over 27,000 in 2011
Knight Frank's projection, published September 2025.
Read the curve as a demand signal for a service, not for a logo. A developer entering the category in 2026 is competing for the same finite group of partners, and the operators with a residential track record are the ones with a queue.
Where the sector is and where the pipeline is going
| Measure | Live schemes | Pipeline | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Middle East share | 15.9 percent | 26.7 percent | Growth led largely by the UAE and Saudi Arabia |
| North America share | 32.7 percent | 26.2 percent | The centre of gravity is moving east |
| Hotel-branded schemes with a hotel on site | 82 percent | 70 percent | A hotel next door is becoming optional |
Knight Frank's 2025 survey also puts standalone hotel-branded development ahead in North America at 49 percent and the Middle East at 43 percent, which is the number to keep beside the table when a partner insists that a hotel must be built first.
What the three headline names actually document
Two of the three houses named in this article's title can be traced to the operators' own material. Armani/Casa appears in Dezer Development's portfolio of completed co-branded towers, alongside Porsche Design Tower, Hyde Midtown Suites and Residences and the Trump towers, which makes the model repeatable inventory rather than a one-off. Aman's own destination list shows the operator scaling co-located property across markets: Aman New York on Fifth Avenue, Aman Miami Beach and Aman Beverly Hills opening in 2028, Amanvari in Mexico, Amancaya in the Bahamas, Aman Niseko opening in 2030, and Aman Singapore and Aman Seoul coming soon.
For the third name, no date or figure could be traced to the brand owner, the developer, or either of the two research houses that survey the sector, so none appears here. That test is worth copying the next time a sales centre hands over a brochure: ask which claims can be traced to the brand owner, and which arrived second-hand.
Five partnerships and what each one rests on
Scroll or swipe the cards
Bugatti Residences by Binghatti
Unveiled on 24 May 2023 at the Coca-Cola Arena in Dubai by Mate Rimac, chief executive of Bugatti Rimac, and Muhammad BinGhatti, chief executive of Binghatti. In Business Bay, with 171 Riviera Mansions and 11 Sky Mansion Penthouses, and a tiered naming system rather than a generic one.
24 May 2023 — the unveiling date, Bugatti newsroom
Mercedes-Benz Places by Binghatti
The Downtown Dubai tower names its penthouse and suite products after Mercedes-Benz vehicles: the Uhlenhaut Coupé triplex penthouse, the Gullwing five-bedroom penthouse, the Pagoda two-bedroom suite and the Vision One-Eleven four-bedroom penthouse, with photovoltaic panels integrated into the facade pattern.
Company claim — published by Binghatti, accessed 2026
Bentley Residences, Sunny Isles Beach
Dezer Development markets the tower around a patented hydraulic elevator that recognises a vehicle's sticker and carries both owner and car to the residence floor. The developer's earlier co-branded towers include Porsche Design Tower and Residences by Armani/Casa.
Company claim — Dezer Development, accessed 2026
Baccarat Residences Miami
Related Group markets the Brickell project on the claim that Baccarat is bringing its first collection of residences to Miami, positioning it on service and lifestyle language rather than on a hotel next door.
Company claim — Related Group, accessed 2026
Karl Lagerfeld Villas, Meydan
Taraf Holding announced breaking ground on the villa project in Meydan, Dubai, and hosts the project page on its own site, which keeps the developer as the address for the facts.
Taraf Holding announcement and project page, accessed 2026
What a partner with a system supplies, and what a nameplate leaves behind
A partner with a system supplies
- Standards the sales team can be held to after handover, not only during launch
- Physical or service innovations the buyer can name, such as bespoke layouts per residence or a vehicle lift that reaches the floor
- A service culture trained elsewhere and imported, with audits the developer did not have to design
- A resale story in year ten, when the launch campaign is long forgotten
A nameplate leaves to the developer
- Hiring, training and retaining the front desk, the concierge and the maintenance team
- Whatever the brand's own auditors would have inspected, had the contract required it
- The gap between what the brochure promised and what the building delivers in month six
- The demand budget for the project, which the partner's recognition is supposed to reduce
Questions to settle before a signature
Is a hotel on site, and does that still decide anything
Knight Frank found 82 percent of live hotel-branded schemes co-located with a hotel, falling to 70 percent in the pipeline, and standalone development leads in North America at 49 percent and the Middle East at 43 percent.
The physical hotel is becoming optional. The operating standard behind the name is not, which is why the survey separates hotel brands from the rest.
Who enforces the standard after opening
Look for a system you can point to. Bugatti and Binghatti describe bespoke layouts for each residence and named mansion and penthouse tiers, and Dezer markets a patented vehicle lift as a Bentley Residences feature rather than a logo.
If the partnership cannot be described without the word brand, the partnership is a licence to print a name.
Where will the buyers actually come from
The Middle East holds 15.9 percent of live schemes but 26.7 percent of the pipeline, largely through the UAE and Saudi Arabia, while North America slides from 32.7 percent to 26.2 percent.
A regional buyer pool means the partner's recognition has to work in Arabic, in London and in Riyadh at the same time, or the endorsement is being spent on the wrong audience.
What the marketing language is doing
Related Group markets Baccarat Residences Miami on the claim that the house is bringing its first collection of residences to the city, which positions the project on service and lifestyle rather than on a hotel next door.
Read a brochure as a scope document and ask which promise has a system behind it, and which one is only a sentence a copywriter was paid to write.
Two ways into the category
License an operator brand
Your buyers are offshore, they will decide from a rendering, and they are already loyal to a hotel or lifestyle name.
Build your own residence brand
You have a delivery record, repeat projects in one market, and the patience to fund demand yourself for a decade.
This is the mainstream route: 83 percent of existing schemes carry hotel brands. What you buy is recognition plus an operating standard, and the standard is the part that shows in year three. Check before signing whether the partner supplies service, standards and audit rights, or only the right to print the name, and read the licensing terms as carefully as the design guidelines.
Building your own brand keeps the margin, the relationship and the resale story inside the company, and it is the route Merlin Entertainments takes in a different sector, with each brand recruiting its own audience. The cost is that your name has to carry the service promise alone, and a name without a system behind it is typography with a construction schedule.
Two traps in every branded residence search result
What a licensed promise looks like in the physical world
A residence brand is a promise about how a building will be run, and the only places to judge it are the ones already operating: a shelf where a consumer name competes for a decision in seconds, a market stall where goods are handled before they are bought, and a hotel dining room where the standard is visible on an ordinary evening.
What to do with this on Monday
- Ask what the partner supplies besides the name.Knight Frank separates hotel-brand schemes because they carry operating standards, which is the part a licence can genuinely transfer.
- Check whether the hotel is still required.Knight Frank's 2025 review puts co-location at 82 percent of live schemes and 70 percent of the pipeline, and standalone development leads in North America and the Middle East.
- Read the pipeline geography against your buyer list.The same survey gives the Middle East 26.7 percent of the pipeline against 15.9 percent of live schemes, led largely by the UAE and Saudi Arabia.
- Treat marketing claims as claims.Binghatti's model-named penthouses, Dezer's patented lift and Related Group's Baccarat positioning are all company claims, and worth reading as such.
- Quote the developer or the research houses.Portals and broker sites are listing aggregators; Knight Frank and Savills publish what can be checked.
- Leave unverifiable numbers out.If an opening date only exists in a secondary listing or an unread release, it does not belong in an investment memo.
Sources
- The Global Branded Residence Survey 2025 — Knight Frank, 8 September 2025
- Branded Residences report, 2025/2026 edition — Savills, accessed 2026
- The official unveiling: Bugatti Residences by Binghatti — Bugatti, 24 May 2023
- Mercedes-Benz Places by Binghatti — Binghatti, accessed 2026 (company claim)
- Bentley Residences — Dezer Development, accessed 2026 (company claim)
- Baccarat Residences Miami — Related Group, accessed 2026 (company claim)
- Aman New York and the operator's destination list — Aman, accessed 2026
- Karl Lagerfeld Villas — Taraf Holding announcement and project page, accessed 2026