MIPIM 2024 Echoes : From Global Housing Needs to the Path to Zero Net
By Alina Aeby, PhD
Founder/ President of Silicon Valley PropTech Association
The annual MIPIM 2024 real estate gathering in Cannes, held earlier this month, painted a cautiously optimistic picture of the industry’s landscape. Despite lingering concerns such as geopolitical tensions, elections, inflation, and monetary policies, there was a noticeable shift from the pessimistic mood of 2023.
The conclusion of the era of minimalistic interest rates has significantly altered the dynamics of deal-making.There’s now a greater emphasis on value creation strategies over mere capital appreciation, with a spotlight on rental growth opportunities and robust management expertise.
Amidst the cautious sentiment, the inherent resilience of real estate as an asset class remained evident. Discussions at the conference focused on housing and housing shortage in particular, different living and co-living concepts within the residential sector, repurposing of different commercial class assets and technology adoption. The burgeoning demand and new polices for ESG reporting and ESG accountability, the expansion of AI and its storage requirements, leading to potentially more data centers and cold storage demand, captured considerable investor attention.
A good part of conversations and panel discussions revolved around the path to zero net and creative and realistic legislative, financial, and educational way to achieve this goal in an industry which is still slow to change.
Confidence in the logistics sector persisted, marked by active investor engagement, and improved consensus on pricing. MIPIM 2024 underscored the industry’s knack for uncovering opportunities amid uncertainty. While investor strategies may evolve and market prices fluctuate, the fundamental principle endures opportunities abound for those with the foresight to identify them.
MIPIM 2024 noticeable highlights:
Property Technology or PropTech has become a integral part of the economic, real estate and mobility development. Once again, this year MIPIM featured the Propel Station, a PropTech section dedicated to startups, accelerators, PropTech Associations and investors.
Although modest in size, the property technology pavilion has become a fixture and an essential industry contributor. The first Global ESG Awards debuted at MIPIM 2024, organized by EUBIN (European Building Innovation Network), with awards for the winners of all 6 categories presented by PAUL Tech. FIABCI (International Real Estate Federation) World Council of PropTech hosted a FIABCI PropTech Friends event, reuniting different European and US PropTech associations and their leaders. The Net Zero urgency and strategies discussion. The “US: Latest trends, challenges and opportunities on the road to net zero” panel was an open conversation about realistic goals, creative legislation, incentives and financing for converting asset classes and reaching the zero net deadline, while cooperating to other complementary and integrated industries.
Housing Matters! – MIPIM half day pre-opening event was dedicated to the housing shortage and increasing demand, as a higher than ever number of global citizens are seeking housing in urban environments.
Mega Projects in developing markets had a moment at MIPIM 2024. The Ellinikon Commercial Hub in Athens clinched the prestigious “Best New Mega Development” award. Saudi Arabia’s NEOM pavilion featured an innovative approach to sustainability.
The organizers placed an increased emphasis on diversity and inclusion, ensuring a broader spectrum of voices—particularly women in real estate—are represented on different panels.
Although MIPIM Cannes is arguably Euro-centric, showcasing European investments opportunities and technologies, there were notable MENA, Asia, Canada and USA presences and hoping for more African and LATAM projects at the future editions. The organizers estimated the presence of 22,500 delegates from over 90 countries.
Highlights from the Event
