Miami project's US$1.7bn off-plan sales underline America's wealth boom

No country creates UHNWIs like the US. During the five years to 2026, 41 per cent of all new individuals worth at least US$30 million were minted there, and the US is home to 35 per cent of the world’s UHNWI population, according to the 2026 edition of The Wealth Report.

The sheer pace and scale of wealth creation is concentrating activity at the very top of the country's prime residential markets, and sales records are being broken with increasing regularity. The latest comes from Swire Properties, which is developing The Residences at Mandarin Oriental Miami on Brickell Key. In an interview with Bloomberg published yesterday, Swire President David Martin said his team had sold $1.7 billion worth of apartments before breaking ground. They included two record-breaking penthouses for about $50 million each. About 65% of the buyers are domestic, many of whom are from the finance and tech industries.

Swire's success is being mirrored elsewhere in Miami, which recorded 53 super-prime sales (US$10 million-plus) in the second quarter, up 56% on the previous quarter, according to Knight Frank's Global Super-Prime Intelligence report. That puts Miami fourth globally by deal count, bucking the global trend that saw sales fall 6% year-on-year.

Transcending borders

The resilience of US wealth creation has underpinned its role as a testbed for luxury residential development. It remains the world's primary hub for branded residences, though the Middle East is catching up, supported by deep wealth pools, mature luxury housing markets and a long-standing culture of branded development.

Miami has become the focal point. The city has 31 branded residence schemes operating and another 42 in the pipeline, almost half of them associated with non-hotel brands, according to the 2026 edition of Knight Frank's Global Branded Residences Survey, which you can find on p.8 of The Residence Report. Only Dubai has a larger market, with 68 live schemes and another 107 in the pipeline.

The success of the sector also speaks to the power of brands that transcend borders. For buyers moving between the world's key cities, a familiar hotel name can offer a degree of certainty – a known standard of service, design and hospitality in an otherwise unfamiliar market. "People know what they are buying," Jonathan Goldstein, CEO of investment manager Cain told us (p.32 of The Residence Report). "The brands mirror their expectations."

Distinctive design

Brands don't dominate everywhere, of course. New York City is the world's third-largest market for branded residences, yet many of its recent best-selling developments have been unbranded. Like their branded counterparts, however, the strongest performers combine distinctive design with an extensive range of amenities and services.

80 Clarkson in Manhattan’s West Village is a good example. Developed by Zeckendorf Development, Atlas Capital Group and Baupost Group, the 112-apartment scheme has generated more than US$1 billion in sales, with prices ranging from US$7,000 to US$10,000 per sq ft. The two COOKFOX-designed towers include an 82ft lap pool, spa, private dining rooms, a triple-height Winter Garden and a motor court – a rarity in New York City.

Another is 1122 Madison Avenue, by Legion Group – a 26-apartment scheme designed by William Sofield, the architect behind Tom Ford’s flagship retail stores. Just a block from Park Avenue and Central Park, the project’s penthouse sold for US$90 million in February, setting a new record for the Upper East Side. See p.21 of The Residence Report for more. 

More realistic

London delivered one of the quarter’s most notable results in our second quarter Global Super Prime Intelligence report. While sales edged down to 44, aggregate value rose 72% to US$1.43 billion, taking the capital to third place by value. The average transaction value increased to approximately US$32.6 million, driven by a flurry of remarkable sales at the upper end of the market rather than a broad-based rise in sales volumes.
Activity bottomed out last November when 106 transactions were recorded over the previous year, Tom Bill writes in a new Prime Central London Sales Index this morning. While the market hasn't rebounded to 2024 levels, it has stabilised.

"We are starting to see sellers become more realistic with their price,” says Liza-Jane Kelly, head of London sales at Knight Frank. “Some have been on the market for several years and want to get on with their lives. They have accepted the more difficult mortgage landscape facing buyers and the fact that the political reality won’t change in the short-term.”

See the piece for more on how values and activity are performing across prime London markets. You can find all the news from the prime London rental market here. 

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