Michael Sims, President, Sims Luxury Builders

Invest: spoke with Michael Sims, president of Sims Luxury Builders, about Houston’s resilient luxury housing market, evolving buyer expectations, and the role of craftsmanship and technology in custom homebuilding. Sims said Houston’s growth, business climate, and diversified economy continue to support demand for high-end residential construction. “As long as Houston continues to invest in infrastructure, maintain a business-friendly environment, and support thoughtful growth, we are going to see a long runway for progress in this city,” Sims said.

How would you describe the current state of Houston’s luxury home market?

The luxury market in Houston has remained resilient, even with headwinds from rising interest rates and higher construction costs.

Houston has been a growing city, and it has been attracting a lot of capital, entrepreneurs, businesses, and families who are looking for space and opportunity. Compared with many other major markets, Houston has remained attractive because it still offers relative value, and that continues to support the luxury market. 

What is encouraging is that much of the demand we see is not speculative. Our clients are making long-term commitments here, and they are willing to invest in their homes where they plan to raise families, entertain, work, and live for many years.

How are evolving expectations shifting demand for custom luxury homes?

Luxury homes are becoming more complex because homeowners are more educated and specific about how they want to live. It is not just about building a beautiful home. They want a home that is livable, functional, resilient, and well-built for Houston’s climate. 

Here in Houston, we live in a difficult environment to build in. Heat, humidity, storms, drainage, and power reliability all matter. Because of that, building practices have become more sophisticated. Clients want to understand the building envelope, humidity control, mechanical systems, generators, drainage, and how the home is going to perform over time. 

A big part of our role is having those conversations with homeowners early, during the architectural design and preconstruction phases, so we can help them make smart decisions before they become expensive to change.

How has Sims Luxury Builders performed over the past year?

We have had a strong year, and we continue to see a lot of activity in the high-end neighborhoods of Houston, as well as in Sugar Land, where our office studio is located. The common thread is that clients are more intentional about what they want from their homes.

We are seeing continued demand for homes that support home offices, home gyms, guest quarters, outdoor living spaces, better kitchens, back-up power, and places where families can gather comfortably for long periods of time.

Resiliency has also become an important part of the conversation. Every home that we build includes a generator, and we are constantly thinking about drainage, flood mitigation, humidity control, and long-term performance. 

There has been a lot of capital put into the infrastructure in Houston over recent years, and that needs to continue for the city to remain competitive and attractive to families moving here. 

How are construction costs affecting your projects?

This past year, we have seen some clients become more sensitive to construction costs. People still want to build beautiful homes, but they are also looking for their project to be managed carefully and transparently.

We continue to see upward pressure on construction costs. Almost everything is more expensive today than it was a few years ago, and our clients understand that because many of them are business owners and executives seeing similar pressures in their industries.

The key for us is transparency early in the process. We try to be clear in the first meeting about what things cost today. We stay engaged throughout the design phase to ensure that the architectural plans and the client’s budget remain aligned. You do not want to guide a client down a path where their expectations are disconnected from reality. The sooner everyone understands the real cost of the project, the better decisions we can make together.

How are you managing the labor side of the business?

For the high-end residential market, we are fortunate to still have access to strong trades in Houston. However, true craftsmen at the high-end level are harder to find than they were 20 or 25 years ago. Houston is a big city, with deep resources, and we can still execute anything an architect, homeowner, or designer can dream up. However, the pool of true high-end craftsmen is not as deep as it used to be. As a result, our team often collaborates internally and with our subcontractors to arrive at solutions for particularly unique design elements. 

I would love to see more investment in trade programs and hands-on training for each major trade category. There will always be demand for skilled craftsmen in the luxury market here in Houston. No matter how much technology changes the industry, building a great home still requires people who know how to execute at a high level. 

Where do you see the biggest opportunities for innovation in luxury homebuilding?

The biggest opportunity is using technology to make homes more sophisticated without making them harder to live in. Our clients are often looking for advanced lighting, shade control, security, climate control, and home automation, but they also want simplicity. They don’t want a home that feels complicated.

How are you incorporating new technologies into your operations?

These days, we often get homeowners who bring us AI renderings or AI videos for what they want in their homes. Sometimes those images show something that is not physically possible or practical, so there is a level of education needed. But it has also been helpful because they can communicate ideas visually in a way that would have been harder to do in the past.

Architects and designers are also able to use AI and other rendering tools so a homeowner can see an idea, react to it, refine it, approve it, and feel confident in the direction before construction begins.

We are also seeing virtual reality and 3D walkthroughs that some architects and designers are utilizing after reaching a certain point in the design phase. That is an incredible advancement. Being able to experience a space before it has been built helps clients make better decisions.

What gives you the most confidence in Houston’s luxury homebuilding sector?

What gives us the most confidence in Houston broadly is its growth and diversification. This continues to be a pro-business, entrepreneurial city, and that attracts companies, executives, capital, and families.

With that comes long-term investment. People who are successful here want to build lives here, and for many of them that includes investing in a custom home. That bodes well for companies like ours, but it’s also good for the broader economy.

Each custom home supports dozens of trades, vendors, suppliers, designers, architects, engineers, and consultants. The housing market here in Houston is an economic driver. 

We are still seeing strong activity in Houston’s established high-end neighborhoods around the city, and the architects and designers we work with are busy. That is usually a good indicator of what the next couple of years will look like.

We are also seeing more opportunity in high-rise residential build-outs as the city expands and densifies in the inner core. That has become a meaningful part of our portfolio of work as well.