Branded Residences Forum a key event at Future Hospitality Summit, returns to FHS World this October with a new identity as FHS Living. On 1 October, the forum will expand beyond branded residences to cover a broader range of living asset classes.
Branded Residences will remain at the core, but will now sit alongside Student Accommodation, Senior Living, Serviced Living, Co-living, Shared Ownership, Club Concepts and Mixed-use as part of one platform.
Ahead of the event, Jason Payne, CEO & Founder of BRESI, is putting questions to the sponsors, partners and leading personalities who make these events so successful, exploring the key factors driving market growth, emerging opportunities, and the challenges facing the branded residences industry in 2026 and beyond.
Introducing: Tea Ros, Founder & Managing Director, Strategic Hotel Consulting
Tea discusses the need to create long-term value, improve the owner experience and deliver strong operational performance. She also looks at opportunities for new residential concepts, changing buyer behaviour and why developers should always start with the destination, economics and the buyer profile before any brand discussion begins.
JP: BRF is rebranding to FHS Living. What do you think bringing these different living sectors together could bring to the industry, and where do you see the biggest opportunities?
TR: For me, this is a natural evolution as the boundaries between these sectors start to blur.
Hospitality, branded residences, senior living, student accommodation, serviced living and co-living have traditionally sat in different investment silos. However, the customer does not think about asset classes; they think how they want to live, for how long, with what level of service and flexibility.
This creates big opportunity for the investment community. I believe we will see more hybrid models and more hospitality principles entering residential sectors. That is likely to create new exciting products. The challenge for investors and operators is to become clearer about what creates value versus what simply adds complexity.
JP: Do you think the pace of growth we’ve seen over the past decade can continue, and what will determine that?
TR: I feel confident the sector will continue to grow. However, it will become more sophisticated and selective. The past decade has been about proving that branded residences work. The next decade will be about proving which branded residences work.
Buyers will become more sophisticated, developers more selective and, importantly, resale markets will begin to tell us which concepts, brands and developers have genuinely created long-term value.
JP: What do you think the industry may be underestimating right now?
TR: The long-term operational promise. There has been enormous focus on the development phase: branding, design, launch, pricing and residential sales. Yet buyers are ultimately purchasing a product they may own for 10, 20 or 30 years. Therefore, the real test starts well after the units have been sold.
Service levels, owners’ costs, governance, asset maintenance and the ability of the operator to deliver consistently all determine whether the original brand promise survives. If those fundamentals are wrong, the beautiful sales story will collide with not-so-beautiful reality.
Over time, operational performance and owner satisfaction will become much more important measures of success rather than purely sales premiums.
JP: Do you see any opportunities for brands to develop new residential concepts rather than simply replicating the existing branded residence model?
TR: Absolutely, and it is also necessary. There is a risk that branded residences become too formula driven: luxury apartments, premium amenities, hotel services, brand name…. That model works, but it cannot be the answer to every market and every buyer.
The more interesting opportunity is to start with the customer rather than the brand. How are people actually living? Are they moving between cities? Working remotely? Spending three months rather than three days in a destination? Looking for community, wellness, flexibility or access rather than simply ownership?
Those behaviours can create very different residential products.
JP: If you could give a property developer considering entering the branded residences sector just one piece of advice, what would it be?
TR: This is easy: do not start with the brand! This categorically is true for every project.
Start with the destination, the buyer and the economics of the project, and be brutally clear about if and why a brand may make sense in that particular location and project.
I view brands as amplifiers. They can strengthen an already compelling investment and residential proposition. However, they cannot compensate for a project with poor fundamentals.
JP: What do you think people outside of the industry still misunderstand about branded residences?
TR: Many people still think that branded residences are luxury apartments with a logo on the door. This is unfortunate and it is our job as an industry to change this perspective. How do we do that? By delivering great products.
Successful branded residences combine real estate development, hospitality operations, brand management, residential ownership and long-term governance. Yes, the brand has value, but the real product is the ecosystem behind it: service delivery, operating standards, owner experience and the confidence that what was promised at purchase will still exist years later.
JP: Can you tell us more about your involvement at FHS Living this year and what you are most looking forward to?
TR: My perspective comes from the investment and hospitality side of the industry, so I am particularly interested in moving the conversation beyond the hyper excitement around branded residences and looking at what makes these projects sustainable investments over the long term.
What I value about FHS Living is the opportunity to bring developers, brands, investors, operators and advisors into the same conversation. We often look at the same project through different lenses.
With FHS Living now widening the discussion to different living sectors, I am especially interested in discussing the opportunities where these sectors overlap. Some of the best ideas in hospitality have historically come from looking outside our own sector and I suspect the same will be true here.
We all have a lot to learn from each other.
About Tea Ros
Tea is a global hospitality investment advisor and Founder of Strategic Hotel Consulting. With 20+ years of international experience, she has advised on over USD 4 billion of hospitality, mixed-use and branded residence developments. Having worked across Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the Americas, she brings deep expertise in evaluating branded residential concepts, positioning, branding and investment viability.
Her background includes roles with Four Seasons, Rosewood, Starwood, JLL and TRI. Tea holds various Board and Advisory Board positions, including Chair Emeritus of the International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC).
Learn more about Strategic Hotel Consulting
About FHS World and FHS Living
FHS World is happening at Madinat Jumeirah in Dubai, 29 September to 1 October 2026, under the theme “Reinvest in our Future”. FHS Living (formerly the Branded Residences Forum) is held within the summit, on the afternoon of 1 October.
Learn more about the rebrand from Branded Residences Forum to FHS Living
Event Overview
- Dates: September 29 – October 1, 2026
- Location: Madinat Jumeirah Conference & Events Centre, Dubai, UAE
- Theme: Reinvest in Our Future
- Key Focus: Hospitality investment, branded residences, living sectors, sustainability, innovation, and experiential travel.
Register your interest and secure your pass for FHS World 2026 and FHS Living HERE
BRESI is the world’s first dedicated global gateway for the branded residences industry, connecting buyers, property developers and brands across every major market. The platform provides a developer-focused global marketplace, comprehensive news media and a strategic partner network of the leading advisory companies in the sector, creating a complete branded residences ecosystem.
