As an 11-year-old, I tried to persuade my mother that we should sell our Victorian farmhouse in the Wiltshire countryside and pour every penny into a brand-new 212mph Jaguar XJ220, which cost £435,000 at the time. We would simply live inside this low-slung two-seat supercar, parked up in a lay-by with a washing line hung between the car aerial and a nearby tree.
‘We’re not just doing that to be cool, we’re doing it because it makes us more money’
Now an alternative has arisen. Car manufacturers are racing to build luxury residential towers in the enclaves of flashy money. In Miami and Dubai, Mercedes-Benz is putting the three-pointed star on buildings designed to accommodate their aspirant demographic. Developer JDS is constructing a 67-storey tower in Miami’s financial district that will house 791 residences and a Formula 1 sim-racing room, with interiors designed in collaboration with Mercedes. Right now, it’s a big hole in the ground, but completion is expected in 2027.
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