Take a look inside a £160m penthouse: Mercedes-Benz Places is the latest Dubai luxury apartment tie-in

Mega ostentatious property developments and Dubai go hand-in-hand. 

But a growing trend in the UAE city is for famous companies – think fashion houses and luxury car makers – to team up with developers to co-create branded buildings and apartments.

The latest to do just that is German car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz.

At an event in front of 20,000 at Dubai’s Meydan racecourse, its 65-floor tower was officially revealed – including one of the world’s priciest homes, if sold for the asking price, of $204million (£160million).

Prime: Mercedes-Benz Places is in one of the last prime Downtown Dubai plots – with views of the Burj Khalifa

Muhammad Binghatti, chief executive of developers Binghatti and Britta Seeger, board member of Mercedes, arrived on stage in a Vision One-Eleven concept car to reveal finer details about the tie-in.

Others currently being built with Binghatti include a curvy property with French supercar manufacturer Bugatti and the world’s tallest residential block via a tie-in with flashy watchmaker Jacob & Co.

The Mercedes development is pencilled in to finish in the last few months of 2026.

This is Money was shown to the spot where the tower will live, one of the last prime spots in Downtown Dubai.

Each apartment will have a 30 degree tilt to ensure all residences have views of the world’s tallest building – the Burj Khalifa.

Standing at 341 metres high it’ll contain 150 homes, all complete with terraces and private pools. 

It will also have 75,000 square feet of solar panels that Binghatti says can charge 40 EVs every day.

Launch: The event at Meydan drew in a huge crowd – and half of the homes were sold at launch

Prices start at $2.3million (£1.8million) – that’ll get you a two bedroom home with between 140– 170 sq metres of space on levels 12 to 31.

From there, there’s three bedroom homes on levels 34 to 52, and working higher four bedroom penthouses, five bedroom and then the jewels in the crown.

Firstly, the Vision EQ Silver Arrow duplex penthouse with 1,160 sq metres, followed by the mega Uhlenhaut Coupé triplex penthouse with 1,620 sq metres, with a truly mind-bending asking price of $204million (£160million).

The triplex comes with a gym, cinema, spa and a huge 20 parking spaces for the buyer’s fleet of luxury motors (not just Mercedes).

Such has been the popularity of the project that half of the homes were sold at launch and two thirds were snapped up within a month.

Dubai has become an attractive home for global buyers, helped by the fact it has a flat 4 per cent purchase tax, and zero income, inheritance and capital gains taxes.

Mapped: The building will be located in Downtown Dubai with views of the Burj Khalifa

What’s happening with Dubai house prices?

Luxury house prices around the world were up 3.1 per cent last year, according to Knight Frank.

The top spot was Manila, Philippines, with prices up 26 per cent over the year. Dubai was second, up 15.9 per cent.

It predicts further growth of 5 per cent this year, suggesting a cooling from 2023 and from the extreme growth of 2022, where prices grew 44.4 per cent.

Meanwhile, according to Savills figures, prime residential prices in Dubai were up 17 per cent last year and 12 per cent in 2022.

Night and day: How the tower will look once completed

It places Dubai second to Sydney, Australia, for strongest growth this year at between 4 and 5.9 per cent.

Experts say prices in Dubai are growing in value because of an extremely busy buying market, driven by high net-worth buyers. 

At the same time, the number of prime homes available has declined sharply.

Faisal Durrani, of Knight Frank, says: ‘The total number of prime homes available for sale declined 38.5 per cent in Dubai during 2023.

‘Owners are clearly deciding to hold on to their homes for longer, with inventory levels falling sharply, signalling the longer-term residency mindset now bedding in among the increasingly dominant buy-to-let purchasers.’

Knight Frank says last year saw a record breaking 431 sales of $10million plus homes in Dubai, including an all-time high of 56 properties beyond $25million.

But, Durrani goes on to add: ‘Despite the record-breaking sales of luxury homes, Dubai ranks towards the bottom end of the most expensive prime markets globally.

‘In our global tracker of 15 prime residential markets around the world, $1million secures 979 square feet of residential space in Dubai, three-times more than London, New York, or Singapore and about 806 square feet more than first-placed Monaco, where $1million buys around 172 square feet of space.

‘Dubai remains one of the most affordable luxury markets in the world, which only adds to its appeal among the international elite who dominate the upper echelons of the market.’

Will McKintosh from Knight Frank, adds: ‘Dubai’s residential market is no longer emerging. It has emerged.

‘The city’s relative affordability, combined with an unparalleled lifestyle offering in one of, if not the safest cities in the world, means not only are international second home buyers zeroing in on the emirate, but residents in the city are staying for longer and putting down roots.

‘This is fostering the emergence of highly sought-after communities away from the luxury beach-front mansions.’

Take a look inside…

The most common questions on the tour of the development, which broke ground earlier in the year, were: will there be a Mercedes dealership on sight, and will fans of the German brand be allowed in. The answer to both questions is no.

The tie-in with Mercedes gives the homes a modern and sleek design look, as the images below show.

Exterior: This is how the entrance will look from street level

Minimalist: The foyer is a clean affair, with plenty of Mercedes branding

Layout: This is how the triplex is laid out, with sauna, cinema room and of course, a private pool on the balcony

Top spot: The views from the pool at the penthouse level

Spacious: This is what £160m worth of living looks like in the penthouse

Living space: There is plenty of curvature on display in all of the homes, due to the way it has been designed

Bathtub with a view: For £160m, you could take a bath while admiring the Burj Khalifa

Branded residencies on the rise

A big question is: Will branded residential buildings ever take off in London or Britain as a whole?

In a recent Savills report on the topic, it says: ‘The global distribution for branded residences continues to expand, with brands seeking new locations to develop their portfolios.

‘This expansion is notably extending to emerging markets, where brands are capitalising on their reputations in regions experiencing rapid economic growth and wealth accumulation.’

It says there were 690 completed schemes as of mid-2023, but also more than 600 schemes in the pipeline which are expected to be delivered by 2030.

Over the past decade, branded residences have increased by more than 160 per cent. 

But much of this growth has been seen in the Middle East and Latin America.

Also, many of the residencies are tie-ins with hotel groups, but the tide is changing somewhat.

Savills points to fashions houses such as Armani and Versace having branded residencies, and another car maker – Lamborghini.

But not much of this has been seen in Britain. Could that be set to change in the coming decade?

Savills adds: ‘Millennials and Generation Z, the future buyer base for branded residences, are increasingly – and disproportionately – brand loyal compared to other generations.

‘For brands, this loyalty has the potential to mean a dedicated buyer base in the years to come.’

This suggests that as the younger, more brand-obsessed generations come into wealth, demand might just kick things off in Britain.

Lee Boyce visited Dubai as a guest of Binghatti.

This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk