Opinion
A Designer’s View of a Changing Luxury Residential Market
As the market shifts, the brief for interior design is changing: create homes that matter today and remain relevant for years to come.
MAWD contributed interior design insight to the RBi Market Sentiment Report 2026–27, alongside more than 200 contributors across the luxury residential project sector. Our reading of its findings is that the market has stopped retreating, but has not returned to effortless growth. This is a reset in what clients and project teams need design to deliver. The question is no longer simply whether an interior feels luxurious. It is whether the design gives a client compelling reasons to proceed, supports sound decisions as the project develops, and remains relevant once the initial reveal has passed.
44% of businesses feel more confident about the coming year; 38% expect no change.
52% say clients have become more cautious and slower to decide.
53% of the reasons cited for projects being abandoned after appointment relate to cost escalation and planning difficulties.
These figures point to a gap between desire and delivery. Clients still want exceptional homes, but committing to them depends on confidence in the whole project. Interior design has a direct role here. The earlier the design team can help align ambition with scope, specification, cost and programme, the more useful its contribution becomes. That does not mean stripping projects of character or lowering standards. It means making every decision work harder: creating a powerful experience while considering durability, flexibility, maintenance and how the home will be used over time.
At MAWD, we are responding by bringing the value of interior design further forward in the conversation. We are connecting the creative vision more closely to the decisions that shape a project’s viability, and making the case for design through both its emotional impact and its long-term utility.
The report shows that businesses are concentrating on their existing capabilities: 55% are prioritising areas such as brand, AI and efficiency, while 20% are looking to grow through new markets, sectors, services or hiring. For us, that reinforces the importance of being clear about what our design expertise contributes at each stage, from the first idea to the lived experience of the finished home.
The next generation of luxury interiors will be judged by more than image or specification. They will need to feel individual, work beautifully in daily life and retain their relevance as needs change. That is where MAWD sees the future of luxury residential design: not as less ambitious, but more considered; not design as the final layer, but design as a force that brings together experience, delivery and enduring value. Our measure of success is a home that still feels exceptional after the moment of unveiling.
Read the full report here.
Good projects, valuable projects, are now ones where design preserves value, creates cashflows or minimises future outlay. {Prof Yolande Barnes, RedBook’s Adviser on Research and Data}
