How Dubai became the branded residence capital of the world – from the record-breaking Baccarat buy to Bulgari, Four Seasons and Cavalli, billionaires can’t get enough of this luxury real estate hub

Apr 14 , 2023

The Bulgari Lighthouse in Dubai set a record with a multimillion-dollar apartment sale – but it’s already been broken by yet another branded residence. Photo: Handout

Dubai recently overtook South Florida as home of the most branded homes, with Roger Federer, heads of states and top Formula One drivers among buyers at the UAE city’s Four Seasons Residences

Despite the risks of buying off-plan – including the possibility the brand you paid for for drops before completion – the demand from UHNWIs refuses to temper

For the world’s rich looking for places to stash their wealth, one segment of Dubai’s real estate market is increasingly the destination of choice: apartments and townhouses with a brand name – we’re talking the likes of Four Seasons, Bulgari and Cavalli.

The Baccarat Hotel & Residences New York also opened a 50-storey glass tower located on 53rd Street, just off Fifth Avenue. Photo: Handout

Sales of those properties are booming in Dubai, which has become the world capital of so-called branded residences as foreign buyers continue to purchase ultra-luxury homes. Recently, a buyer agreed to pay 203.1 million dirhams (US$55.3 million) for a five-bedroom, Baccarat-branded apartment in a project that hasn’t even broken ground yet. At 14,000 dirhams per square foot, it’s the highest price by area paid for a pre-construction apartment, according to Luxhabitat Sotheby’s International Realty, the broker on the property.

It breaks a record set in just February, when a five-bedroom apartment sold for 160.3 million dirhams, or 13,751 dirhams per square foot, in the Bulgari Lighthouse, according to Dubai land records. The tower will be built on a seahorse-shaped, man-made island near the jewellery brand’s hotel and resort.

Bulgari Lighthouse in Dubai recently held a sales record – but not for long. Photo: Handout

Luxury real estate boomed in Dubai as the rich got richer during the Covid-19 pandemic and as Russians looked for safe havens for money after their country’s invasion of Ukraine. Prime real estate soared 89 per cent in October from the previous year – a swift recovery from a slump that lasted from 2014 to 2020. The market turned higher so quickly it caught many off guard. Villas in a Four Seasons Residences project in Dubai that sold for about 40 million dirhams in 2021, pre-construction or “off plan”, are now worth about 100 million.

I cannot name our buyers, but you could imagine – you have heads of states, you have top Formula One drivers

George Azar, Luxhabitat Sotheby

The value of branded apartments sold in Dubai swelled to a record 25.3 billion dirhams in 2022, making up nearly a fifth of the value all apartment purchases in the city, according to Knight Frank.

The Four Seasons Residences look out over the Dubai Creek. Photo: Handout

“Their popularity has been supercharged by the wall of capital from the ultra-rich that continues to target the city’s luxury homes,” said Faisal Durrani, head of Middle East research for Knight Frank.

Developers like teaming up with luxury names because they often can sell the apartments for 30 per cent more than non-branded residences, depending on the region. The brand typically gets paid a commission of each sale and an annual management fee – not a heavy lift for putting your name on something and overseeing quality.

Buyers, meanwhile, might be fans of the brand, enjoy the higher level of amenities that often far outshine non-branded developments, and they have the security of a name they can trust – especially important for pre-construction sales and those buyers who are purchasing the real estate sight-unseen from abroad. Residences also often come fully furnished.