I arrived into a rainy, grey Cannes early evening on Monday with promises from the driver that tomorrow’s weather would be fine.

Cannes was already buzzing with Mipim delegates. Monday, which used to be a quiet day, has definitely become the first day of the event. Dinner at Maschou in the historic old town hosted by real estate legend Harvey Soning is always a high spot. This is Harvey’s 34th Mipim and he still approaches it with huge enthusiasm and generosity.

It was great to catch up with Helen Pickstock, Jeremy Grey, Jace Tyrrell (accompanied by his ubiquitous Opportunity London sign) and Lady Lucy French. I enjoyed just watching the number of people who come to Soning’s table to pay their respects. Incredibly, he has been a Maschou patron since his childhood when he dined there with his parents. That’s continuity for you.

Tuesday morning was the Greystar/Real Estate Balance equity, diversity and inclusion breakfast on the beach where we saw the first glimpses of blue sky. Unusually for Mipim, this was an event where women outnumbered men. We heard from top panellists Thomasin Renshaw, who has recently joined Greystar; Clarence Dixon, global head of loan services at CBRE; deputy London mayor for planning Jules Pipe; and Jo Davis of Avison Young UK (also chair of Real Estate Balance).

The wide-ranging discussion covered a number of issues around diversity in real estate. Pipe commented that the most successful Greater London Authroity (GLA) schemes with greater returns were those created with a diverse range of thought and community input.

Thomasin described her struggle as a developer to gain access to a diverse cross section of the local community. The largest cohort that engages with planning applications is the wealthy retired with time on their hands. There is, she said, a structural problem in engaging with young working people to get their input.

There were also useful points around women still being assumed to be the main child-carer and the fact that a development scheme needs female input to ensure good practical design of living spaces. The panel agreed there should be more outreach initiatives in schools to tell children about career opportunities and to make the industry more accessible. Clarence said they were seeing more apprenticeship applicants.

Next, after a quick supermarket run for provisions for my studio apartment, I set off for the other end of the Croisette for the Opportunity London cities event at the Majestic hotel with presentations on Oxford Street and Euston. I discovered that the Majestic has a veritable rabbit warren of meeting rooms on the first floor that I had never explored, but I found the destination eventually.

My second London deputy mayor of the morning, Howard Dawber, talked about the plans for Oxford Street and announced the pedestrianisation would happen this summer. He is right that Oxford Street really doesn’t live up to its historical reputation. With the exception of Selfridges, visitors to Oxford Street are hard-pressed to find a decent department store – although I would add that the demise of the department store is sadly also true of New York. There are apparently too many fake Harry Potter stores on Oxford Street, although an official one is coming shortly and they plan to banish the fake stores.

The plans for pedestrianisation will create an enormous public realm that will be used for activations. The GLA will be contributing £150m to the costs. Tyrrell, Opportunity London chief executive, announced no fewer than 12 opportunities for redevelopment on Oxford Street. There was no discussion of where the displaced cars and buses would be rerouted to.

Simon Loomes of the Portman Estate outlined exciting proposals for Nash-designed Marble Arch, which for years has been marooned in a sea of traffic. He said this was the first opportunity in 60 years to increase the public realm, introduce more planting and reduce traffic around the monument. This project would then bookend the western end of a revitalised Oxford Street.

It was then straight to the excellent London business improvement districts (BIDs) roundtable at the Panorama restaurant at the top of the Five Seas Hotel. The lunch brought together a great mix of city leaders and developers to discuss the role of partnerships such as BIDs in driving economic growth in cities. As chair of the property group of the Central District Alliance BID, this was just up my street.

On my table, the discussion included BID supremo Ruth Duston; Gensler’s director of cities, Ian Mulcahey; John Walker, former director of planning at Westminster council; and LDN Collective chief executive Max Farrell. A suggestion I particularly liked was that BIDs should get a proportion of business rates collected, as a massive proportion gets sent out and isn’t used on local projects. We got quite creative using naming rights to raise revenue. The message to BIDs was to be bolder. It was a really invigorating discussion with delicious food and a panoramic view of Cannes.

I had time for a quick visit to the Palais to ascertain that the Saudi stands were operational and serving their usual high standard of canapés, although I’m not sure how many delegates from the Gulf states have been able to fly to Nice unless they could requisition private jets.

I also made a quick visit to the London Stand to pay homage to the London model, which once again is centre stage on the stand. And, as promised, apologies to Alex Antzoulatos of Virtual Viewing for inadvertently taking over his stand. I have learnt that Virtual Viewing is an AI-enabled technology company for real estate. Good to meet you!

Next, I joined my Mishcon de Reya colleagues in hosting our annual Mipim drinks event. It was a great opportunity to catch up with clients and to make some useful introductions to newcomers to the event, which I hope will lead to new business.

This was followed by the RSM drinks on the beach and then back to prepare for our dinner at L’Affable. It was great to host the dinner with my colleague Ed Hughes-Power and to catch up with our lovely guests Rebeca Guzman Vidal, Jacob Loftus, Debra Yudolph, Damien Sharkey, Sascha Lewin and Michela Hancock. It was a great finale to a busy first day. It is remarkable how after one day at Mipim you have experienced four seasons and feel you have been here a week.

There is a strong UK delegation at Mipim once again but seemingly without any government ministers this year. Also, while the London deputy mayors are working hard to promote our city, it would have been good to have our London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan supporting the London real estate sector again this year.

It was another early start for those attending the Mipim British Property Federation (BPF) investor breakfast, now a stand-up reception at the UK Stage in the Palais rather than the lavish sit-down breakfast of old at the Carlton Hotel.

But marketing budgets are definitely not what they were and I think we are all more appreciative of the hospitality that is on offer. It’s strange to think that with the IPF’s upcoming merger with AREF, this could be the BPF’s last Mipim in its current form.

There was a good turnout for the event and we heard from Tim Newns, director at government unit the Department for Investment, that the long-term picture looks strong, but we need institutional capital to invest to support cities to achieve their ambitions.

Melanie Montanari, director for housing markets and strategy at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), and a representative on the Homes England board, talked about the government’s proactive pro-growth approach. She also mentioned that the National Housing Bank will be launched soon, which sounds like good news. She acknowledged that there was more to do but, that said government ‘value the partnership with you guys’. With the recent announcement of further regulation and red tape, in the form of a public register of land options to deter anti-competitive behaviour such as ‘land banking’, I’m not sure that developers in the room were convinced.

Before I come to the next panel event, a word to the Mipim organisers: while I appreciate single-use plastic is to be discouraged, the new cardboard badge holders are really not fit for purpose, especially when they get wet in the rain. Mine collapsed on day one and I almost lost my expensive pass. I saw a number of delegates with the same issue. Could we have something a little more robust next year please?

Next on my agenda was the offices panel on the London Stand. Katie Stewart, the City Corporation’s executive director of environment, mentioned their retrofitting fast track for change of use. Parallels were drawn with Paris’s La Défense office area, where public and private sectors need to work together to futureproof and introduce new uses.

Joe Binns, investment director at developer Stanhope, commented that you need investors with a 10-year-plus time horizon. He added that lack of certainty around planning can deter investors. Often new-build development doesn’t work for them because of the time it takes. It seems that transaction volumes and take-up are back to pre-Covid volumes, but it is prime offices that people want.

British Council for Offices CEO Sam McClary asked the panel to name the one regulatory thing they’d like to see to upgrade grade B offices. Abigail Dean from Nuveen explained that in the US, her company provides funding for office improvements and she suggested that we need to link regulations to affordable financing, but of course it is helpful to know when those regulations are coming.

Stewart added that the City twin tracks planning with negotiations for Section 106 agreements. Simon Williams, head of investment, UK, at BNP Paribas, suggested a five-year moratorium on stamp duty land tax for companies spending money on an EPC upgrade.

It was another early start for those attending the Mipim British Property Federation (BPF) investor breakfast, now a stand-up reception at the UK Stage in the Palais rather than the lavish sit-down breakfast of old at the Carlton Hotel.

But marketing budgets are definitely not what they were and I think we are all more appreciative of the hospitality that is on offer. It’s strange to think that with the IPF’s upcoming merger with AREF, this could be the BPF’s last Mipim in its current form.

There was a good turnout for the event and we heard from Tim Newns, director at government unit the Department for Investment, that the long-term picture looks strong, but we need institutional capital to invest to support cities to achieve their ambitions.

Melanie Montanari, director for housing markets and strategy at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), and a representative on the Homes England board, talked about the government’s proactive pro-growth approach. She also mentioned that the National Housing Bank will be launched soon, which sounds like good news. She acknowledged that there was more to do but, that said government ‘value the partnership with you guys’. With the recent announcement of further regulation and red tape, in the form of a public register of land options to deter anti-competitive behaviour such as ‘land banking’, I’m not sure that developers in the room were convinced.

Before I come to the next panel event, a word to the Mipim organisers: while I appreciate single-use plastic is to be discouraged, the new cardboard badge holders are really not fit for purpose, especially when they get wet in the rain. Mine collapsed on day one and I almost lost my expensive pass. I saw a number of delegates with the same issue. Could we have something a little more robust next year please?

Next on my agenda was the offices panel on the London Stand. Katie Stewart, the City Corporation’s executive director of environment, mentioned their retrofitting fast track for change of use. Parallels were drawn with Paris’s La Défense office area, where public and private sectors need to work together to futureproof and introduce new uses.

Joe Binns, investment director at developer Stanhope, commented that you need investors with a 10-year-plus time horizon. He added that lack of certainty around planning can deter investors. Often new-build development doesn’t work for them because of the time it takes. It seems that transaction volumes and take-up are back to pre-Covid volumes, but it is prime offices that people want.

British Council for Offices CEO Sam McClary asked the panel to name the one regulatory thing they’d like to see to upgrade grade B offices. Abigail Dean from Nuveen explained that in the US, her company provides funding for office improvements and she suggested that we need to link regulations to affordable financing, but of course it is helpful to know when those regulations are coming.

Stewart added that the City twin tracks planning with negotiations for Section 106 agreements. Simon Williams, head of investment, UK, at BNP Paribas, suggested a five-year moratorium on stamp duty land tax for companies spending money on an EPC upgrade.

Another London Stand panel I enjoyed was on the topic of balancing investment and historic preservation. Chaired by Emily Wilson, director of director of partnerships at NinetyFour Group, it included Tom Sleigh, the City Corporation head of planning and transportation (who I have recently had the pleasure of interviewing for my Propertyshe podcast.)

As Sleigh explained, the City of London has been practicing adaptive reuse for hundreds of years. It has a retrofit fast track and now a policy of retrofit first. He added that 50% of London office retrofits are in the Square Mile. Tom Bruce, deputy leader of Hounslow Council, talked about the west London borough’s Golden Mile of art deco buildings, how they can be best used and what heritage means to the local community. He referred to the controversial demolition of the area’s historic Firestone building by its owners in 1980 to avoid listing and asked if that would happen today.

Sleigh mentioned the controversy over the proposed development of Liverpool Station. He explained that honesty is needed, as the Victorian buildings at the station are not being demolished. He also used City development 1 Undershaft as an illustration of why an existing building is being demolished to make way for a new tower, explaining that for economic reasons, there was a need to build high on that site.

Sleigh also talked about the Barbican Centre as an important cultural heritage site that is falling apart. The City saw its importance and has put money into a substantial retrofit of this brutalist icon.

I have been involved in many conversations at Mipim and the topic that surprisingly isn’t being talked about that much is the potential impact of the current war in the Middle East. But it was very much front of mind for former CBRE head of residential Mark Collins, who I ran into on the London stand; he has just managed to return from a family holiday in Dubai after a harrowing few days under fire and the nightmare of trying to get his family, including a five-month-old grandchild, back to the UK.

I also ran into the flamboyantly dressed Ben O’Connor, who has recently left New London Architecture to found Shape Strategy, where he focuses on strategies for inclusive place making. Today he was a vision in purple, so although he very much put me in the shade, I had to get a photo of us together.

With Ben O’Connor, a vision in purple

I thought it would be instructive to allocate time to investigating some of the other stands in the Palais. The France stand was running a digital infrastructure panel at exactly the same time as a very similar session on the London stand.

On the Rome stand, I encountered a presentation about stadium redevelopment and the fundamental need for public and private collaboration. Although the presentation was in English, it was given in a much more excitable style than similar presentations being made on the UK platforms.

The Turkish stand, which I can’t recall seeing last year, was most impressive.

Along with showcasing some landmark development projects, there was live Turkish music and a huge round table to facilitate international discussion. Looking at some of the other cities and countries exhibiting, it is clear we are all facing similar challenges and are competing with each other for investment, which makes it all the more important to have our government and mayors at Mipim to support the UK.

I had a useful afternoon catch-up with Alex Jan, chair of London’s Central District Alliance Business Improvement District (BID), as I am a board member and chair the property group. Meeting at a local café, we compared notes on all things relating to our upcoming property owners’ BID ballot and valuable Mipim conversations. It was particularly enjoyable to have the discussion against the backdrop of a buzzing local community and the early evening ‘passeggiata’ (strolling) of well turned-out Cannes residents and their immaculately coiffed canine companions. It got us comparing photos of our respective cockerpoos and making for the local pet accessory shop.

With Gavin Winbanks, Chenai Gondo and Louise Ioannou at the PW Editor’s dinner

The day finished with an excellent Property Week editor’s dinner. A huge thank you to editor Lem Bingley, head of client solutions Jo Knight and their teams for once again assembling such an interesting group of real estate people.

I do not want to steal Lem’s thunder, so will leave it to you to read about the evening later in the pages of Property Week. I will say that we were all enjoying the conversations so much that we didn’t want to leave. I think Gavin Winbanks, founder of White Hawk Green, Chenai Gondo, CEO of RealService & Experience Maker, and Louise Ioannou, head of workspace UK at HB Reavis (pictured) and I were the ones who turned the lights off.

On the way back to my apartment, I walked past Caffé Roma. Former BPF chair Liz Peace often uses this Mipim venue as an illustration of the dominance of men in our industry. It did seem to be the same sea of men in suits, but it was quite late, so perhaps the female contingent had already called it a day to be ready for the morning meetings.

Last year the great excitement at Mipim was Sadiq Khan making his first appearance at the event as London Mayor. Speaking on a panel last year, Native Land senior adviser Jon Milward commented that Khan’s presence was a great signal that we are relevant to the politicians. I wonder what his absence this year signals?

It’s my Mipim Day three and another early start for a breakfast catch-up with FTI’s Giles Barrie and a chat about future Propertyshe podcast guests.

As always, Giles came up with some inspired suggestions. I carefully selected a highly rated breakfast restaurant, but Giles only had a pot of chamomile tea (which, rather charmingly, came with its own timer, so it brewed for exactly the right time). I felt rather gluttonous tucking into my avocado on toast. I don’t know if it’s the bracing sea air in Cannes or the Olympian walks back and forth on the Croisette, but I couldn’t start the day without breakfast.

Blue skies over La Croissette, viewed from the forecourt of the Mondrian Hotel

It is not warm here and there is still a stiff breeze, so it’s impressive that so many delegates are happily eating al fresco. The locals are still in heavy coats and scarves. The other downside of eating outdoors is the Cannes pigeons, who are fearless and relentless in pursuit of a few crumbs. I don’t recall pigeons being an issue at previous Mipims, but they probably risked drowning in last year’s torrential downpours. If Peter Rhodes was still in charge, I’m sure they’d be indicted for the offence of parasitism under the French civil code for benefiting from Mipim without registering.

I have had a number of discussions on delegate numbers for this year. Some have said it is quieter, but on the streets of Cannes, some of the smaller back streets have been unpassable because of the sheer number of conference goers standing outside bars and restaurants drinking. It will be interesting to get the stats, but it may be that a growing number are choosing not to register for the conference because of the cost, especially as so much of the action takes place outside the Palais. I still think a daily pass might bring more people in.

The Mishcon Thursday client lunch in the old town was very enjoyable and a great opportunity to catch up with my colleagues, clients and new contacts. Great wine and food as usual and many introductions and connections made. Thank you to all our guests for joining us. It seems that there is a change in that more people are choosing to go home on Thursday, so a number of guests were going straight from the restaurant to the airport.

With Julian de Metz (left) and Charlie Green

James Andrew International and United Trust Bank’s Thursday night cocktail reception at the Majestic doesn’t seem to have been affected by Thursday departures; it was busier and buzzier than ever. The champagne and smoked salmon being served is always a winning combination. The Soning dynasty was out in force with two of Harvey’s sons and two grandsons in attendance.

I spoke with too many guests to mention, but it was great to catch up with Charlie Green (The Office Group) Julian de Metz (dMFK), industry veteran Nick Leslau, amazing brand guru Steve Edge (Steve Edge Design), Property Week editor Lem Bingley, Jace Tyrrell (Opportunity London), Lady Lucy French (Fleet Street Quarter BID) and many more.

Hendrik van der Ham (left) and Steve Edge

It was also good to meet Hendrik van der Ham, chairman, founder and president of Seventh Project Development World (pictured here with – in an incredible outfit – Steve Edge). Van der Ham is creating the seventh island in Dubai and showed us the presentation, which looked amazing. We didn’t discuss the present conflict, but he may need to wait for things to settle down in the Middle East.

I then made my way with Gary Murphy, now of Savills, to the friends of SAY and Foxtons annual dinner, courtesy of SAY founder Debra Yudolph. It was a lovely evening and good to wind down with a margarita after all the panels and roundtable discussions. There was much amusement with Michela Hancock (Hilltop Property Partners) and Chiara Caldwell (Close Brothers Property Finance), particularly when the latter was addressed as Tiara!

It was pretty amazing even for Mipim to find myself sitting across the table from Will Castle of Cohabs. Outside of his real estate role he is a film producer and speaker on mental health and bereavement, shaped by losing his father Paul Castle to suicide in 2010. His award-winning short film Heirlooms has sparked many important conversations around masculinity and grief. The point of mentioning this is that I knew Paul well and we even learnt to horse ride together. I carried on trotting round the ménage, while Paul, who was definitely more of a risk taker, graduated swiftly to hunting and running his own polo team. But I hadn’t seen Will literally since he was at school, so to come across him so randomly, hear about his real estate career and how he has dealt with the tragic loss of his father, really was one of those serendipitous Mipim moments.

Some final thoughts from conversations this week. It was busy, but I was told that there were fewer European funds represented, as some are not currently investing in real estate. Of course, the war raging in the Middle East meant that a substantial number of delegates from the region were unable to make it. The plus side of this for some was that room upgrades were available at some of Cannes’ top hotels.

There is never a dull moment in Cannes. As Michela Hancock and I trudged home together after dinner and another long day, we encountered the group of ladies (pictured) walking in procession, trying to find an audience and embracing unsuspecting outside diners in their path. I assume they were promoting one of the many nightclubs, but who knows!

Of course, annoyingly, just as we all depart Cannes, the sun is shining and it is warm for the first time this week. It seems to have become customary for everyone to write up their Mipim ‘takeaways’, making it a much more crowded market than when I began my Mipim Property Week diary some years ago. So, thank you for reading my take on Mipim, and hopefully see you again next year.

I flew into a very stormy Nice on Monday night and the torrential rain continued all evening which is most unusual for Mipim week.

It was raining ‘chats and chiens’ as James Whitmore of Tavistock put it, speaking in the vernacular. As I write this at the end of day 1, not only do we have exceptionally heavy rain but also dramatic thunder and lightning which I am afraid is going to make the opening night extravaganza a bit of a wash out. No fireworks this year!

Thank you Harvey Soning for starting my Mipim in style at our traditional first night dinner at the legendary, atmospheric Le Maschou restaurant in the Old Town. There was great music and even better food from the wood fired oven to get us into the Mipim mood. It was good to spend time with Harvey and his other guests, Martin Samworth, Paul Turton, Lady Lucy French and self styled Cupid himself, Jace Tyrrell who, as CEO of Opportunity London, has been guiding London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan round the Palais.

The big excitement here in Cannes is in having Sadiq Khan at Mipim flying the flag for London for the first time in his 9 year mayoral term. His aim is to attract foreign investors into the capital. He is accompanied by a trio of deputy mayors: deputy mayor for business, Howard Dawber, deputy mayor for housing, Tom Copley and deputy mayor for planning and regeneration, Jules Pipe. Jules Pipe has been a regular fixture at Mipim for many years.

There are also a number of London local authority leaders in the entourage looking for investment into projects in their respective boroughs.  Sadiq Khan officially opened the London Stand and launched the new Opportunity London Investment prospectus unveiling £22billion in investment opportunities across the capital.

Chatting to Gavin Winbanks of White Hawk Green, a company that  supports strategic investment and engagement with government, he remarked on the fact that the arrival at Mipim en masse of the mayors very much aligns with the devolution agenda. As well as the London mayoral team Steve Rotheram, Mayor of Liverpool and Andy Burnham Mayor of Greater Manchester are here at Mipim. As Winbanks commented, ‘this is where the power is these days’. He said there have never so many UK Mayors at Mipim and with so much power. The symbolism and the willingness to engage with investors gives comfort. Winbanks was rather more relaxed than in the days when in his role as Director at the Department for International Trade he was responsible for the UK Government stand at Mipim and for arranging the programmes for government ministers attending Mipim.

It is particularly good to finally see Sadiq Khan at Mipim as Boris Johnson was a regular visitor when he was London Mayor as was Ken Livingstone before him. It has to be said that Johnson was an incredible draw as the French particularly would queue for hours to hear from ‘the yellow haired mayor’!

After a busy morning on the London Stand, The Opportunity London drinks and investor lunch with Sadiq Khan was well supported with a number of CEOs of London based REITs and overseas investors in attendance.

In the afternoon I ventured further afield to the Saudi stand which always wins the award for the best canapés in town. It is a good place to visit if you find yourself without a lunch engagement. I was blown away by the model of The Mukaab, the gold box construction which will be the centre piece of New Murabba, a brand new downtown area for Riyadh. When built, it will be the largest building in the world encompassing 2 million square ft of mixed use floor space. It is a 1300 tall cube inspired by the design of the Murabba Palace.  I was shown the model by the developer’s head of talent acquisition who was at Mipim to entice young professionals out to Riyadh. You can see why some might be attracted by the hot dry climate!

Continuing the international theme, I visited the Japan Pavilion in the main exhibition area and watched a very entertaining  presentation of the Japanese Sweden House concept.  It is  a Japanese company  promoting high-performance ready made housing that harmonises the Swedish living ideas (high airtightness, high heat insulation, longevity, coexistence with nature) and Japanese living culture. They are not only fire resistant but earthquake resistant too. There are still  lessons to be learnt from the Japanese on off site construction.

It isn’t just the London stand that is fully of positivity. Over at the Manchester stand Caroline Simpson, Chief Executive of the Greater Manchester combined authority commented that all ten of Manchester’s authorities are at Mipim to support the city. She  talked about the 177,000 homes they have planned and said they were negotiating with government on the release of all public land. They are focusing on building communities around transport infrastructure.  Her closing words were ‘It’s all about people and communities’.

The final event of the day was dinner at L’Affable restaurant with some of my favourite Mipim goers. Thank you to Marianne Brook (OPDC), Tom Bloxham (Urban Splash), Artem Korolev (Mission Street), Katherine Russell (John Lewis Partnership), Brendon Moss (Innovo),James Saunders (Quintain) and my colleague Adriano Amorese for a great evening and to the restaurant for some outstanding cuisine. The grand marnier soufflé just has to be experienced. It was still raining relentlessly when we left after midnight. And a  word of warning for the unwary. The marble and granite slabs used as paving stones in Cannes, whilst attractive when dry, are incredibly slippery and treacherous after a rain storm

In summary, we may be slightly damp and our feet squelch when we walk but this unprecedented rainfall has aroused our British fighting spirit. There is a  feeling that we Brits won’t be beaten by a little rain which has made for an incredible ‘esprit de corps’ here in Cannes.

Wednesday morning started brightish and early as I headed for the British Property Federation Investor breakfast on the UK Stage which attracted a good turn out.

Although I talked yesterday about the ‘esprit de corps’ here in Cannes, the inclement weather seems to also have encouraged a spate of umbrella thefts. It raises an interesting moral dilemma if it is pouring with rain and you see an unaccompanied brolly. would you hand it in or ‘borrow’ it? I suppose at the end of the day it is the survival of the fittest so keep your brolly close.

Breakfast was followed by an interesting panel session on Capital Investment and UK Development facilitated by government advisor, Tony Danaher, with John Milward (Native Land and ODPC), James Saunders (Quintain) and Svitlana Gubriy (Aberdeen). John Milward commented that London Mayor, Sadiq Khan’s presence at Mipim was a great signal that we are relevant to the politicians.

However, he was also concerned that the government wants developers to get less reward. He pointed to the pressure on developers particularly from increased build costs and the Building Safety Act which was delaying projects. In his view, the government needs to ease regulations, and invest in resources as everything is taking too long.

Importantly, developers should be allowed to make a reasonable return. James Saunders echoed these concerns, reporting delays in dealing with the Building Safety Act requirements, with one of his towers having been delayed for 43 weeks and counting. He also said that the Renters Rights legislation will have unintended consequences which will affect BTR income and churn rates. ‘BTR a is being taken for granted and is in danger of stalling’, he warned. I have to agree with John Milward that we definitely need more Tony Danahers to make that vital link between government and developers.

Old Trafford panel

I happened to still be seated when delegates and members of the press started flooding into the UK Stage auditorium.  Clearly something of great note was about to happen as it was soon standing room only. I was fortunate to be in pole position for the Old Trafford Regeneration Session on the newly announced stadium proposals. The panel included Lord Sebastian Coe, chair of the Old Trafford Regeneration Task Force, Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, Tom Ross, Leader of Trafford Council and Collette Roche, COO of Manchester United.

The session began with a video from architect superstar, Lord Norman Foster who hailed Old Trafford as one of the most exciting projects in the world.  It will be a global destination that will be built in just 5 years, he said.  They will ship in components using Manchester’s canal network and will rebuild the station and create a mixed use mini city. It will be a team effort! Seb Coe as chair of the Old Trafford Regeneration Task Force talked about working with civic leaders and stakeholders to look at the bigger picture. He described this as the biggest regeneration project that has been undertaken in Europe which could be even bigger and better than the London Olympics 2012.

Mayor Andy Burnham explained that the stadium was at the heart of a 10 year investment pipeline. He was clear that there will be no public money invested in the stadium and that Manchester United will fund their new home. He also said this could be the remaking of the north of England and could be the best stadium in the world. The project will include 17,000 new homes and will add huge community value.

The panel believe they will find the funds to support the project and insist it is an ‘ambition with substance. Not just a dream’.  As Andy Burnham explained, he left government to give the North West a greater voice. This does that. A mayoral development corporation is to be set up through parliament which will kick starts growth. It was tremendously uplifting to hear the panel discuss this hugely ambitious sports led regeneration project which could be a real game changer. As Seb Coe commented, ‘sport is a fantastic driver and helps deliver’.

Continuing the sports theme, I sat in on the Sport and Placemaking panel on the London Stand. Panellist Laura Citron CEO of London Partners made the point that sport is now seen as  a replacement for retail. People want experiences not material goods. She added that it started with ABBA Voyage and now investment in immersive experiences is enormous. Retail itself is becoming more experiential rather than just shifting goods.

The experience economy is of course part of the London growth plan. Max Farrell of LDN Collective pointed out what a great asset the Premier League is for the UK and that if you buy a football club, you buy the city. Farrell is collaborating with Muse on a new vision for the Royal Docks as a global destination with sports as its focus along with leisure and entertainment. It will provide the opportunity to create jobs, affordable housing, social impact and to put the Royal Docks on the map.

Max Farrell, Susan Freeman and Darren Rodwell

Thinking about the role of sport, it is noticeable that the Howden Pavilion on the Croisette  beach has been heaving with people during Mipim all wanting to play on their padel court and the tournament continues notwithstanding the stormy weather.

The London Stand remains busy and although London Mayor Sadiq Khan has now departed his visit is still being discussed. It was good to catch up with former Leader of Barking and Dagenham, Darren Rodwell, also known as the founding father of Opportunity London which has taken this year’s Mipim by storm. Just a final word on the London Stand. A number of people have remarked on the strange presence of the Beefeater! What do you think?

Thank you PIMCO and LiRE for an excellent cocktail reception complete with an amazing barman who concocted some terrific cocktails to order including a mind blowing pickle margarita. It really was an immersive experience, if not quite a sport.

The torrential rain returned for the evening and I managed to wade through the waters to the Property Week Editor’s dinner where there was a wonderful mix of guests. No doubt you will read all about it in the magazine shortly. Sadly dinner finished close to midnight so I wasn’t able to make it to the Greystar party which I hear was once again an amazing event. I still treasure my photo from last years’s party alongside Michela Hancock, Jane Groom, Jonny Popper and James Saunders.

PIMCO and LiRE cocktail reception

Greystar party photo from Mipim 2024 (From L – R James Saunders, CEO of Quintain; Jane Groom, London Communications Agency; Susan Freeman, Mishcon de Reya; Michela Hancock, Greystar; Jonny Popper, London Communications Agency)

As the rainy season continues, I have noticed a new essential item of footwear. The plastic overshoe has been appearing on the Croisette which I suppose is the antidote to the squelching feet I mentioned yesterday.

Day 3 at Mipim dawned sunny for a change but with a biting cold wind. Was it going to be a Panama or bobble hat day?

Breakfast was with Debra Yudolph (SAY), Anna Moore (Domna) and Sandra Jones (PriceHubble), all impressive entrepreneurial women. We fortified ourselves with caffeine for the long day ahead.

Interestingly, the Mipim week seems to have shifted over the years with more events now on the Monday and even on Sunday and with more delegates heading home on Thursday. When Mipim began an incredible 35 years ago with less than 9,000 delegates, Tuesday was the pre conference night, with events kicking off on Wednesday and going through to the weekend.

The London stand was still busy and I enjoyed the session on London past and future with the Beefeater appropriately hovering in the background. As City of London Policy Chairman, Chris Hayward said in his introduction, Roman London is literally under your feet as you walk around the City of London. Archeological finds continue and such history is respected preserved and incorporated. Guy Hunt from the Museum of London Archaeology talked about the numbers of tourists attracted to our historic city sites.

The Bloomberg HQ which sits on the same site as the Roman Temple of Mithras has attracted over 50,000 visitors. He described the recent discovery of the Roman basilica at 85 Gracechurch St as the find of the year. Plans are afoot to incorporate the remains into the consented office scheme.

It was good to see a group of Middle Eastern developers in Omani traditional dress looking at the famous London model which is back in pride of place on the London Stand. As many of us have been over to look at the Oman and Saudi stands it was encouraging to see their reciprocal interest in London. London continues to be seen as stable and desirable environment for overseas investors.

Thank you to my Mishcon colleagues for organising a fantastic lunch in Cannes old town. It was great to catch up with guests over some excellent food and wine. It was good chat to Leigh Robinson from industrial developers Bridge Capital and to hear about the history of the company from its conception in the US, the move to the UK and now their expansion into Europe.

I had to miss coffee as I realised, a little late, that it was going to be a 30 minute walk in the pouring rain to reach a client meeting in the Carlton Hotel. Incidentally the Gray D’Albion Arcade is a useful covered cut through from the Rue D’Antibes to the Croisette. It is a little eerie at the moment as all the shops have closed down and there is no passing trade. Does anyone know what is planned there?

The meeting was well worth the hike in the rain as it was a useful catch up with a client developer who confided that at the moment the numbers just don’t stack up for developers. this echoed the comments made by others on one of yesterday’s panels. He added that the banks ‘continue to pretend and extend’. As a result the clients haven’t bought a new site for a couple of years now.

Meanwhile the umbrella theft issue I reported yesterday has reached epidemic proportions although nobody will admit to being the type of person who would take someone else’s umbrella. Of course, some of these incidents happen inadvertently. Mert Zabci of Alpha Real Capital caused mayhem when he picked up the wrong Barbour jacket after dinner in his rush to get to the Greystar party. When he was leaving the party at midnight, he realised the treasured Investec zebra someone had given him for his kids was missing from his pocket and that the jacket was several sizes too small!

He then noticed several missed calls from unknown numbers on his phone including an ominous ransom message saying ‘return the jacket you incorrectly took in 15 minutes at Cafe Roma, or the cuddly toy gets it!’ Needless to say he sprinted back, the exchange was made and the zebra saved so there was a happy ending. I would add that Mert is a tall international rugby player and the jacket’s owner was of much smaller build so it is unclear how the mistake was made.

The James Andrew International and United Trust Bank reception was as busy as ever and the star of the show was as ever the smoked salmon specially flown in from London. It was good to catch up with many familiar faces including industry veteran Nick Leslau who hasn’t been at Mipim for many years. Thank you to Harvey Soning and Paul Turton for your careful planning and generous hospitality.

My evening ended with some fab food and wine at an incredibly entertaining dinner hosted by Debra Yudolph (SAY) and Sarah Tonkinson (Foxtons). It’s was great to meet many new faces including Robert Sloss CEO and co-founder of HUB. I really enjoyed hearing the HUB story. they are progressive, living-led developers focused on transformative housing and regeneration projects.

Robert said that in his view central and local governments have not woken up to the catalytic force BTR can have in city centre regeneration. He doesn’t believe any of HUB’s regeneration projects would have been delivered without it. He also observed that there is a lack of the type of patient capital needed to unlock much needed regeneration which can revitalise city centres. 

It does seem that although Mipim coincided with the publication of the UK’s Planning & Infrastructure Bill, as well as the new London Growth Plan, there are still concerns amongst developers here at Mipim about the making the financial viability of particularly residential development work. Here’s hoping that further dialogue between government and developers which happens at events such as MIPIM can have a positive impact.

Despite the dramatic weather, it’s been another great Mipim and good to see such energy and drive being put into promoting London and the UK. No doubt there will be the usual negative articles in the mainstream media but having been here on the ground I can see for myself that  it has been a very constructive coming together of the public and private sector which is what Mipim is all about.

My flight into Nice was delayed so all my plans to attend early evening receptions on Monday night were thwarted. The taxi driver then drove off with my coat, which wasn’t ideal as it’s freezing here at night. 

I was late for our traditional Monday night MIPIM dinner at Le Maschou hosted by real estate legend Harvey Soning. (Harvey, if you are reading this, thank you again for being such a generous host and apologies again for being late!) Once again, the life size crudités baskets were larger than the guests and we happily chomped through an impressive array of vegetables before even getting to the main course. I’m pleased to report that newly appointed Opportunity London CEO Jace Tyrrell arrived after I did, having been held up at his own reception. As is not unusual, Jace was bearing an appropriate photo ready sign, ‘London Bursting with Opportunity.’ It is really good to have Jace back at MIPIM in his new role as it has certainly been a quieter place without him.

Crudités

The after-dinner challenge was getting back to my apartment as I’d rushed out in such a hurry that I hadn’t really focused on exactly where it was. There followed several fruitless circuits as all I knew was that it was in a back street off Rue d’Antibes somewhere behind the Mondrian Hotel. There are a lot of very similar looking blocks in that area with a myriad of different entrances! I found it eventually but honestly thought I was going to have to check into a hotel for the night which would have blown the budget, if indeed there is a room to spare in Cannes.

Tuesday morning was the excellent Women in Property breakfast on the beach, hosted by Crowe. The sun was shining and there was a great turn out, including a number of men. It was good to catch up again with Ross Ironside, head of commercial real estate at Coutts and with Laura Walker who was telling us about Camion, her exciting new clean energy start up which is using data to navigate the world of EV infrastructure.

Srettha Thavsin, Prime Minister of Thailand

I then sped down to the Palais to see Damian Wild’s Infrastructure Workshop session which in a first for MIPIM, was introduced by none other than, Srettha Thavsin, Prime Minister of Thailand who talked about the importance of infrastructure projects to the growth and prosperity of his country. According to Wikipedia Thavsin’s nickname is NID, he is a civil engineer by training and previously he ran a property company and is a leading real estate tycoon.

This year’s MIPIM has been rebranded as a global urban festival as opposed to the international trade-show of old! Has it changed? It’s too early to tell but there have been a lot of comments about the strong Saudi and Neom presence. I was keen to know more about Neom, Saudi’s futuristic new city so I went onto the stand and it is indeed mind blowing. They seem to be building not one but several new cities from scratch. There were 3D viewings and films and it’s definitely worth a look.

 

3D model

Sadly we have no UK Pavilion this year but our UK cities are well represented and the London stand, which has moved along from its usual position and has finally lost its rickety steps, has been rejuvenated by the presence of Opportunity London and the return of the London model. it was great to see a lot of activity and enthusiasm for promotion of London projects which hasn’t always been the case over the last few years of MIPIM.

Thank you Zac Goodman and the team at TSP for a fab al fresco lunch at La Petite Maison which has now moved from the Majestic and down the coast to Palm Beach. The sun shone brightly enough to send some of us scurrying for shade. Lunch was a real treat with great food, disruptive company and entertaining stories.

On the walk back into Cannes it was good to run into Vincent Tchenguiz, just as we were reminiscing about MIPIMs past.

Next stop was the Avison Young Aperitif party which was in full swing. I initially mistook the adjacent and rather sedate Swiss Life stand for Avison Young but quickly realised I was in the wrong place. I was delighted to be reunited with my latest Propertyshe podcast guest, UK President Nick Walkley who was in full host mode and fortunately seemed to be happy with our recording. It was good to catch up with Avison Young Co-managing directors Kat Hanna and Adrian Boyce. And credit to Avison Young for not only bringing the whole UK team down by train, but having their own branded train carriage to boot!

Dinner with Honor Barratt, Jacob Loftus, Sadie Malim, Joseph Rajah, James Saunders, Michela Hancock and Darryl Flay

My final event was a Mishcon de Reya dinner with a carefully selected group of guests who got on famously well. Thank you Honor Barratt, Jacob Loftus, Tom Bloxham, Sadie Malim, Joseph Rajah, James Saunders and Michela Hancock for being such perfect guests. And, as an added bonus, we managed to detain BTR pioneer Darryl Flay from another table and he regaled us with some great stories which may feature in an upcoming podcast. There was a lot of laughter which is a sign of a good evening. Some conversation highlights were around the vital importance of not losing your grip and how to make intergenerational living work successfully. Honor Barratt we look forward to an update next year! And thank you L’Affable for some of the best food in Cannes!

Wednesday started bright and early with a freezing shower, as the boiler in my apartment block had completely given up the ghost, and the feeble trickle of water was now ice cold. Are there any reasonably priced hotel rooms in Cannes at peak MIPIM when you need them? I doubt it.

Fortunately, things looked up with the Say Property Consultancy/Conductor breakfast at Môme restaurant, which was a perfect way to start MIPIM Day 2. Debra Yudolph and Charlotte Steadman Constance treated us to an amazing spread. We were instructed to sit with someone we didn’t know, always a challenging request for me! There was some excellent conversation, and I got to talk to Jon Milward about his plural career and to Phyllis Agbo about moving from athletics to CBRE and then to social impact developer, Stories. By the time we took off for our respective schedules, I had almost forgotten about the plumbing issue!

Debra Yudolph of SAY Property (L), Susan Freeman (R)

I planned to go to the Palais to support Michela Hancock from Greystar, who had rushed off for her speaking slot in the Palais on Level 3. I assumed that information would be enough to locate her session, but sadly not, so whilst trying to locate the WC facilities, I discovered that although we have no UK Pavilion this year, we do have, tucked away on the 1st floor, a UK Stage. It’s not very well signposted but is definitely worth a visit for the excellent programme of panel speakers if you can find it.

I stayed for the panel on the crucial issue of driving investment into the UK property market. As panel chair Simon Stretch said, creating the right policy environment is essential. The excellent panellists included BPF CEO Melanie Leech, Stephen Benson of Ardent (a Mishcon de Reya colleague in a previous life before he joined Battersea Power Station), government chief planner Joanna Averley, and Gus Wiseman, head of investor relations at the Department of Business and Trade. Melanie commented on the need for the government to realise the importance of partnerships and for the government and local authorities to play their parts alongside the private sector.

She also took the opportunity to flag that business rates continue to be a huge blocker to the revitalisation of our town centres. The chair queried Lord Johnson, Minister for Investment, and a passionate advocate for the sector, having referred to the property sector in an earlier session as ‘a golden goose’. Gus Wiseman referred to the innovation story now revolving around our universities, a theme which came up in my recent podcast conversation with Avison Young UK President, Nick Walkley.

Lunch was with Debra Yudolph and Anna Moore. Anna, formerly of McKinsey, is now a co-founder, along with Chennai Gondo, of Hestia, which is aiming to retrofit homes and make them more energy-efficient. This is a market which has so far been neglected as we tend to focus on sustainable new builds. Very appropriately, we found ourselves at a sustainable salad bar for lunch where everything was plant-based and locally sourced. You composed your own salad and could buy preloved clothes at the same time. It seemed a more appropriate venue for our straitened times than some of the more sumptuous dining on offer in Cannes.

Back in the exhibition after lunch and between meetings, I sat in on a great London Stand panel on London’s ecosystem resilience and keeping cool. Sasha Lewin, CEO of W.Real Estate, made a good practical comment from the developer's viewpoint in that despite the best intentions regarding sustainability, developers have to prioritise as they are forced to deliver their product at a certain cost point.

London stand panel

Rob Buckley, head of sustainability at Weston Williamson & Partners, talked about London’s canals and parks that can keep it cool. He told us about how to make more of the ‘green arteries’ and to further remove traffic! I’m not sure about his suggestion of getting rid of cars from central London because they create heat! Was he including my cool electric mini in that comment, I wondered. I met the relatively new FT property correspondent Josh Oliver, who it turns out is Canadian, although sadly missed his interview with Aware Super head of property, Alex Misev.

I may be becoming obsessed with the Saudi NEOM stand, which I mentioned yesterday, but it’s reassuring to know that I’m not alone as a number of UK property CEOs have been sighted being shown around the amazing projects they have on display. It seems to be the Saudis’ sheer ambition that is capturing our imagination. It is also attracting a lot of our young talent. I spoke to one young residential UK agent who is happily now working in Riyadh.

The evening was spent at the Property Week editor’s dinner, which is now back at MIPIM for the first time since pre-lockdown. Sponsored by Zac Goodman and TSP, Property Week assembled a great cross-section drawn from different parts of the real estate sector for a relaxed exchange of views. I met the new RICS CEO Justin Young for the first time, and with his track record in organisational transformation, I’m confident the RICS is in good hands. I will leave Property Week to report on the evening, but there was some great repartee bouncing around the room, particularly between Liz Peace, Tom Bloxham, Zac Goodman, Honor Barratt, James Saunders, Giles Barrie et al.

I’m so pleased that when we coincided at London Business School all those years ago, I suggested that Quintain CEO James Saunders thought about leaving the world of brand for a career in real estate. He, in turn, told me I should have a career as a TV chat show host! I didn’t take him seriously at the time, but I suppose hosting the Propertyshe podcast isn’t far from the mark. It was a great evening, and you’ll read all about it in Property Week shortly.

After dinner, James Saunders, former Property Week Editor Giles Barrie, and I trekked gamely up the hill to the magnificent Greystar villa for a proper MIPIM late-night party. It was a great party, for which a huge thank you goes to Mark Allnutt, Harry Downes, Michela, and the team at Greystar.

From L - R: James Saunders, CEO of Quintain; Jane Groom, London Communications Agency; Susan Freeman, Mishcon de Reya; Michela Hancock, Greystar; Jonny Popper, London Communications Agency

I thought as we left the party that the night was done, but there was more self-inflicted drama to come. Returning to Cannes by Uber with my lovely co-collaborator LCA’s Jane Groom and her business partner Jonny Popper, realisation dawned that I had picked up the wrong keys, didn’t have the keys to my studio apartment, and had absolutely no way of getting in. I hadn’t realised that this unassuming apartment was going to have such a large starring role in my MIPIM blog! Jane and Jonny very kindly offered to let me use the couch in their wonderful eyrie overlooking Rue d’Antibes. In all honesty, whilst very generous of them, it didn’t look at all comfortable, plus they were leaving Cannes at the crack of dawn. Fortunately, Ansela Gonsalves of the letting agent Quatio, who is an absolute angel, took pity on me when I called and drove from Juan at 12:30 am to let me in. Now that’s what you call real customer service.

The morning started with our 'Get Set for Net Zero' Property Week panel, which is part of an initiative of which Mishcon de Reya is a founding partner. The event was hosted on 3.14’s rooftop with splendid views over the sea and the Carlton Hotel. Collaboration was the theme of the event, which kicked off with an excellent presentation by Abigail Dean of Nuveen on the work of the Better Building Partnership. This was followed by a panel of experts from Hollis, Mishcon, Deepki, Chargepoint, the World Green Building Council, and the LB of Hounslow. Mishcon's Head of Planning, Anita Rivera, quickly got to the nub of the problem for developers wanting to build sustainably. She said, ‘A lot of developers want to build sustainable buildings. The planning pinch point is trust in the system and whether they can proceed in a realistic timeframe. They need collaboration with the planners.’

Property Week’s Get Set For Net Zero panel

Sadly, I had to leave without hearing the response from the leader of Hounslow as I had a meeting with a client next door at The Carlton Hotel, which incidentally wasn’t as busy as it has been in previous years. In fact, the new garden area at the back was quite quiet. Perhaps there is more cachet attached to being seen in the front lounge. That being said, securing a table was still competitive, and the one available table had been reserved by SEGRO. The trick is to secure your table early in the day and then keep hold of it for a series of meetings. Once seated, we spent a useful hour setting the world to rights. The client, who is a veteran of the UK real estate sector, felt that some at MIPIM were being too optimistic, and he certainly didn’t expect a recovery until next year. Very much the 'survive until ‘25' mantra reported from Expo Real last year.

I was then late for lunch, and of course, progress along the Croisette is always slow as there are the usual random encounters along the way. At one ringside table, I ran into London & Regional’s Richard Livingstone, City & Docklands’ Gary Sacks, and Scott Spiro. Sadly, there was only time for a brief chat. Lunch was hosted on the sunny terrace at the Martinez Hotel, courtesy of Stacy Eden and RSM accountants. It was a lively crowd, and the food and service were impeccable. It was a great opportunity to catch up with Stacy and probably the first time we have had an extended conversation and to compare notes on MIPIM 2024 with British Property Federation CEO Melanie Leech.

It was then a quick stroll back to the Palais and an impromptu catch-up with the irrepressible Barking and Dagenham Leader, Darren Rodwell. He told me that two years ago at MIPIM, he and the NLA’s Nick McKeogh hatched the idea for Opportunity London to promote investment into London projects. Now Opportunity London has a new CEO, Jace Tyrrell, the support of the London Mayor, and all the London local authorities through London Councils, and 40 private organisations. He said that the collaboration of all these public/private sector stakeholders is key and the approach is likely to be copied by other cities. They are getting a lot of attention, and just before he left Cannes, Jace told me they were very close to getting investment for one of their featured prospectus schemes.

Darren Rodwell has been selected to stand as a Labour candidate for MP for Barking, but he assures me that as MP he will continue to drive investment into his area. As I write this, I have just seen Sir Brandon Lewis’s notice that he is standing down as MP. I was sad to see this as of all the many housing ministers we have had in the last 20 years, and it’s been a lot, Brandon stands out for me as he really did engage with the sector and was very supportive in the early days of Build to Rent. He was also a regular at our legendary annual Mishcon de Reya pre-MIPIM party in London, where he and his lovely wife Justine were happy to engage informally with our guests. Best wishes, Brandon, for whatever the next chapter brings.

Darren Rodwell and Susan Freeman

Talking about parties, the Thursday night party at MIPIM has become an institution. Although I and many others refer to it as ‘Harvey Soning’s party,’ it is now co-hosted with United Trust Bank and this year also The New West End Company led by Dee Corsi. As usual, the room was packed with over 500 guests. It was a fascinating mix of people from all parts of the real estate sector. It was great to catch up again with Sir Andrew McAlpine and to make some new acquaintances, including Newmark CEO Barry Gosin from New York, who has led the firm for 45 years. They have just opened an office in Paris and have ambitious plans to expand further across Europe and beyond. They are looking to hire top agency talent or buy the companies they work for. Recent acquisitions include UK agency firms Gerald Eve, Mark Gibbon’s BH2, and Harper Dennis Hobbs. A former partnership with agency Knight Frank didn’t end in an acquisition.

Interestingly, MIPIM in the early days started on Wednesday and ran until Friday. Now there are events starting on Monday, and many people seem to have left Cannes on Thursday. Having said this, I have never seen the Thursday night party quite so busy.

I finished the evening in style with pizza at Vesuvio on the Croisette with Liz Peace. It was a good opportunity to have a proper conversation and to plan an initiative or two. I hadn’t eaten there since the early days of MIPIM when I remember going there with Neil Sinclair. It doesn’t seem to have changed at all in 25 years, but it’s a good thing to have some continuity against the backdrop of so much redevelopment along the Croisette. It’s difficult now to remember that where there is now a succession of luxury designer shops, there were once cafes at which to meet. Now it’s just the Armani Cafe with long queues to get in.

From L - R: Liz Peace, Gary Sacks, Harvey Soning, James Burchill

I have been meaning to mention the ugly cardboard MIPIM pass holders. I can see why the organisers may have wanted to replace the plastic holders with something more sustainable, but these flimsy cardboard numbers didn’t last a day, let alone the duration of MIPIM. Also, they are forever turning backwards, so you can’t read the name on the badge but only the advert on the back for Poznań, apparently a unique investment area halfway between Berlin and Warsaw! Apologies, Poznań, but I don’t see why I need to advertise you.

The consensus is that it has been a quieter MIPIM, certainly for the UK delegation. London and the UK cities have been flying the flag, but sadly without Birmingham this year. It occurred to me that whilst in the last couple of years the proptech sector has been prominent at MIPIM, I'm not sure where they were exhibiting, and I haven’t come across the US VC firms such as Metaprop or Fifth Wall, but that may be because I didn’t get to focus on the proptech circuit this year.

I managed to get through the day without any apartment-related disasters and am now looking forward to lunch at the famous Colombe d’Or restaurant in St Paul de Vence with Keltbray and then the traditional end of MIPIM BBQ chez Tom Bloxham at Maison Bulle, the intriguing Bubble House. My challenge now is what do you wear for a glamorous South of France lunch, a hilltop BBQ (where it can be quite chilly), and then a flight back to London? It’s a lovely problem to have as the Cannes sunshine will soon be a distant memory.

It’s good to be back in Cannes for another Mipim, although the city is still undergoing a major facelift, with one side of the Croisette excavated and closed to traffic and barricades preventing direct access to some of the beach restaurant venues. 

The city of Cannes has embarked on a major refurbishment and redevelopment programme designed to ‘reinvent its legend’. Following the ongoing restoration of its underground water network (which may account for the occasional wafts of sewage), work to enhance the public areas is due to start in 2024. The good news is that the refurbished Carlton Hotel, which I had expected to be closed for Mipim, reopened yesterday afternoon and is already packed with Mipim-goers. It has had an amazing facelift without losing the character of this iconic building. It is brighter and airier and now has access to a landscaped garden area and terrace at the back. I’m also pleased to report that the Voilier restaurant, which yesterday looked as if it was permanently closed, has miraculously sprung back to life.

It is reassuring, after the hiatus caused by the pandemic, to find that so much remains the same. The historic Maschou restaurant in the old town is as fabulous as ever and I defy anyone to get through the enormous basket of crudités that is one of the set courses. Thank you, Harvey Soning, for once again hosting a perfect first night at Mipim.

Day one started with a sunny Women in Property breakfast. It’s good to see so many women from different parts of the real estate sector networking together particularly as, although there is still a long way to go, there are very many more women delegates at Mipim than in previous years.

The London model is back in its rightful place on the London Stand. I have to say that its symbolic presence was very much missed last year. And it’s great to see Opportunity London in pride of place on the London Stand. This is a new initiative supported by the London mayor, London councils and the private sector to promote investment in London. We had a great Opportunity London pre-Mipim launch party hosted by Convene at 22 Bishopsgate to promote the power of partnership, which is, of course, crucial to its success. Barking & Dagenham leader Darren Rodwell commented to me that Opportunity London is quickly gaining traction and support and that it is now mapping as many as 150 investment opportunities. Watch this space!

It was an unexpected treat to listen to a keynote from the charismatic Professor Carlos Moreno, architect of the 15-minute city at the Drees & Sommer party. I have had Dr Moreno on an online panel, but this was the first time I had seen him in real life. He talked about his concept of the 15-minute city in which public space is for people and not for cars. In the new pyramid of priorities, pedestrians come first and the single-ownership car is last. He also talked about the need for more vibrancy and social interaction and said it was unsustainable to have single-use buildings.

A huge thank you to Roger Clarke and the IPSX team for hosting an excellent lunch at Môme on the beach. They have recently announced their fourth IPO and have £600m of assets under management and further deals are in the offing. It’s quite a coup that London is home to the world’s first regulated commercial real estate stock exchange. Chatting about Mipim, Clarke said that its secret ingredient is the unplanned meetings. It’s so true. At the VTS drinks party I reconnected with Jason Presence, who has recently joined Investec from NatWest Bank and whom I hadn’t seen for a while. He was at Bank of Ireland when we first met, so that goes back a few years! I also ran into James Burchell of Tellon Capital and caught up with him on how his business has expanded since we last met.

There are already so many more examples of the serendipitous meetings that were missing from our online lockdown networking. A reminder, in case it was needed, of why we come to Mipim.

Day 2 didn’t start particularly well. In my rush to get to the 8.30am British Property Federation (BPF) Investors breakfast on time, I committed the cardinal error of putting on an empty lanyard without a Mipim pass and had to hotfoot it the 20 minutes back to the hotel to retrieve it.

The annual event was hosted at the Avison Young beachside pavilion and was in a new stand-up format. This encouraged networking and the serendipitous meetings I mentioned yesterday continued. Speaking to a packed room, the BPF’s Melanie Leech and Avison Young UK President Nick Walkley were a well-honed double act and the audience loved Leech’s description of Walkley as her ‘Mipim husband’, referencing the large number of Mipim events they go to together.

The guest speaker was Ramona Jones, deputy director of the Office for Investment, set up by former PM Boris Johnson. She explained that she was at Mipim to demonstrate her willingness to listen and that her department is able to bring together the levers to attract investment. Jones described the government as ‘in listening mode’.

She underlined that levelling up is a huge agenda and there would be announcements shortly about investment zones. Sure enough, 12 new investment zones were announced in the Spring Budget. Walkley reflected on the past year and stressed how important it was that the real estate sector now looks forward rather than back, as this is a critical year. He said the sector must assess its priorities and prepare for a change of power. Devolution will continue, so the question he posed is how do we help build communities. He also noted that the public sector is more open to new ideas than at any time in his career. 

As chancellor Jeremy Hunt was presenting his ‘back to work’ Spring Budget, it was timely to run into Andrew Waller and Lorna Landells of Remit Consulting on the London Stand. They updated me on the data they continue to collect on the UK return to the office, which I have previously written about in my Property Week column. They have real data collected from office entry turnstiles and are able to aggregate it. In terms of which areas of London are doing best, they said Docklands has picked up and the West End has been consistently better than other areas. They also mentioned that Costar have reintroduced Loopnet, the online commercial real estate marketplace which, relying on data it has collected, is able to predict pretty accurately which tenants are likely to take what space.

Lunch was with Related Argent chair David Partridge, who in his role as the chair of the UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard governance board is seeking to bring the entire real estate sector together around a common standard. We clearly need a single agreed methodology to evaluate net zero carbon performance and Partridge is working tirelessly to achieve an agreed standard for both new and existing buildings. 

For one of my client meetings, I was able to try the brand new Carlton Hotel garden terrace. It is beautifully landscaped and very relaxing, but you do miss out on the people spotting that is such a feature of the main lounge. At Mipim, we survive on a strange diet of croissants and canapés, interspersed with the occasional meal, but I wonder where the residents of Cannes buy food? Looking for an apple or a banana this afternoon, I trailed fruitlessly up and down the Rue d’Antibes until I eventually found a small bar with a fruit bowl. After some negotiation, the waitress kindly agreed to let me have a banana as a gift as it wasn’t for sale. But seriously, where are the food stores?

As usual, the Cannes weather has proved unpredictable, moving from winter to summer and back again in a matter of minutes. Ronen Journo of Hines and Paul Disley-Tindell of Telereal Trillium recognised each other as soul mates, as each seemed to have struck on the idea of checked suiting as the ideal Mipim garb. I thought they looked a picture of sartorial elegance and asked them to pose together. I still haven’t run into brand expert Steve Edge this Mipim. The eye catching outfits of this self-proclaimed prophet, madman and wanderer never disappoint. He lives by the motto ‘dress for a party every day and the party will come to you’. If you want to know why, listen to the podcast we recorded together and get out your sequins! 

Finally, thank you to Damian Wild, Leanne Tritton and the ING Media team for a fab dinner on the beach. You assembled a good mix of developers, architects, lenders and other property experts, which made for fascinating conversations amongst your guests. I finally got to catch up with Rachel Miller from Housing Growth Partnership, an equity investor in residential development keen to form strategic partnerships, whose aim is to accelerate housing delivery and help businesses grow. We will follow up with some introductions back in London. And thank you ING and L’Ondine particularly for the desert - an amazing pistachio confection in choux pastry that was exquisite!

Today was meant to be the warm, sunny day, but I ended up in a woolly bobble hat and coat. 

I left the hotel at 8.30am for the ULI breakfast meeting without a jacket – a very brave move, as I was going to be out at meetings all day until evening. Within hours, freezing cold, I caved in and bought a jacket at Zara.

The waffles filled with smoked salmon and cream cheese were a great hit at ULI. It was also good to catch up with Cees van der Spek, global corporate relations and marketing director for Amsterdam based developer EDGE Technologies. EDGE is leading the way in tech-enabled sustainable development and has a couple of exciting schemes in London.

I was just a little hurt Cees hasn’t yet listened to my recent Propertyshe podcast with CEO Coen van Oostrom, in which we discussed his meeting with Al Gore at the World Economic Forum in Davos, which inspired him to focus on sustainable development on his return to Amsterdam.

Next up was a whirlwind meeting with IWG/Regus founder and chairman Mark Dixon, another Propertyshe podcast guest. Dixon, as always, had back-to-back meetings, but it wouldn’t be Mipim without a catch-up on business and family, and the latest new features at Chateau de Bernes, his luxurious hotel and vineyard in the hills above St Tropez.

I managed to make time to check out the Paris Stand. it was heaving with people and one of the exhibits was an interesting model of La Défense showing their plans to revitalise the business district. It will be interesting to see how they incorporate Professor Carlos Moreno’s vision of the 15-minute city and his call for the end of single-use buildings. It may be indicative of a smaller UK delegation this year, but I have noticed many more European languages being spoken along the Croisette, which in past years has been dominated by English speakers.

Property and proptech came together at the Coyote brunch co-hosted with Least, the property leasing platform that speeds up the commercial leasing process and is being adopted by savvy landlords. Getting property and tech together at Mipim is unusual, as they seem to run entirely separate circuits and events, which makes it difficult to attend both. It was good to catch up with Taylor Wescoatt from Concrete Ventures and Rebekah Tobias from Marcol. Also, under the heading of random encounters, I ran into Steve Hughes from Hollis, who it turns out is a near neighbour at home.

It was great to join some of my Mishcon de Reya colleagues in hosting a relaxed client lunch in the old town. I had the chance to catch up with Martin Samworth who, among his other roles, is the recently appointed chairman of the RICS. It is reassuring to see this important real estate institution in such experienced and capable hands.

Thursday evening at Mipim for me means Harvey Soning’s legendary drinks reception. It’s the first one I have attended since 2019 and I am delighted to report it was bigger and better than ever. The room was packed with the movers and shakers of the property industry. The centre piece, as always, was the sides of smoked salmon flown in from Panzers St John’s Wood in London, which was much appreciated by the 500 guests. I mentioned Steve Edge in yesterday’s blog. I finally tracked him down at the party looking as fab as ever in crimson velvet - although disappointingly no sequins!

Steve Edge at Harvey Soning’s drinks reception

Then it was back to Mantel in the old town for a Mishcon dinner co-hosted with New York City-based proptech venture capitalist Metaprop, where we managed to bring property and proptech together for the evening. Maureen Waters and Zander Geronimos from Metaprop, and Sean Cooley, CEO of Mapped, represented proptech and Tom Bloxham of Urban Splash, Joseph Rajah of Joseph Homes, Fabrix CEO Clive Nichol and my Taylor Vinters colleague James Slinger were in the property corner. We were incredibly excited to be able to celebrate Fabrix’s incredible double whammy at the Mipim Awards, winning both best new development and best urban regeneration project. This is quite an achievement. Huge congratulations to all at Fabrix! I’m just sorry that Debbie Whitfield had to return home early and missed the celebrations.

I will be rounding off Mipim in style at the Tom Bloxham annual BBQ up in the hills looking down over the Cote D’Azure and reflecting on exactly what is the elusive magic of the annual event. Of course, when we get home, the follow-up will be to make something out of all the connections made at Mipim. It will be interesting to see if our whizzy new electronic cards have captured all the information we need. I’m not sure they really are a substitute for those notes written on the back of business cards, as the art of networking is all about people, rather than technology. 

Has anyone else noticed there is something strange going on with the Cannes beach restaurants? Mystified by the profusion of building construction permits outside the familiar beachside haunts, I did a little research and came across a Hollywood Reporter piece last summer headlined ‘Cannes Construction Leads to Chaos on the Croisette’ about the possible impact on the annual Cannes film festival.

It seems the mayor of Cannes’ ambitious plans to transform the town into a high-end tourist destination are disrupting local business. Many of the beach restaurants we have come to rely on over 30 years of Mipim have either disappeared or are being reconstructed as more upmarket operations in an effort to upgrade Cannes to compete with other international playgrounds for the rich. It remains to be seen how this gentrification will affect Mipim-goers who are already bridling at rocketing hotel and restaurant prices.

Notwithstanding the construction programme, we managed to find a restaurant that was open and my regular first-day Mipim beach lunch with Liz Peace and Pat Brown took place very much as usual. That was despite the gale-force winds that dashed glasses and other untethered items to the ground and meant that sun umbrellas couldn’t be used as they would have been blown over. It turns out that we were the lucky ones as stories began to unfold of extreme turbulence, delays and aborted landings as flights struggled to land in Nice in the unusually high winds. 

Popping into the Mipim News office for a pre-event interview was an interesting experience. The day before Mipim is due to start, the Palais is a hive of frenetic activity with stands still being constructed. It never looks as if the exhibition will be ready by the next day but, barring storms that did away with Manchester’s beachside stand last year, it will no doubt be ready for action.

It’s great to see so many of our UK cities out in force flying the flag and with London, Scotland, the West Midlands and the UK government lined up (alongside Egypt) each with their own branded pavilions. I took a peek around the London Stand and it has been reconfigured this year with an enclosed stage area. Also I think I noticed proper steps giving access to the stand for the first time – a great improvement on the rickety affair on which I have always wrecked my heels. On the subject of heels, I am following Tom Bloxham’s Mipim tip to dress informally and while it won’t be sandals for me, it may well be trainers. Watching the kids travelling up the Croisette at speed in their wheeled trainers with flashing lights, I wonder: don’t they make them for adults?

A useful first day at Mipim was concluded by our traditional Monday night dinner gathering at Le Maschou in the old quarter hosted by Harvey Soning of James Andrew International and Jace Tyrrell of New West End Company. There was loads of lively conversation around our plans and aspirations for Mipim 2019, great food and company. The 30th anniversary of the event promises to be a vintage year, once the wind calms down. I’m looking forward to the madness beginning tomorrow as I attempt to get to numerous simultaneous events while also chairing a proptech panel in the UK government pavilion. Bring on the wheeled trainers!

I can tell it’s been a successful and event-packed day at Mipim as I’m writing this blog in the early hours of the morning! We have just concluded our Tuesday night Mishcon de Reya client dinner at La Petite Maison, which has become something of a tradition. As always, it is packed with an amazing cross section of real estate personalities who join us to enjoy the ambience and live music. I think that the food, when it arrives, is the best in Cannes.

It’s been a very long day. I started early in the morning on the London Stand, which was packed with delegates and exhibitors. It seemed busier than ever before and the London model seems to get bigger and better each year. I made time to visit Paris and Istanbul, which seemed to be less busy than London, I’m pleased to say. I also had a quick tour of the main Palais exhibition area. You do need a map these days – I thought I would never find my way out. I didn’t manage to find the Innovation Centre.

Next up was an interesting Knowledge Economy panel on the London Stand. Deputy mayor Jules Pipe (who was everywhere yesterday) detailed the impressive number of London knowledge clusters. Katherine McGuiness, flying the flag for the City, made the point that as Londoners we undersell ourselves, quoting Deloitte as rating London as “the number-one city for fintech”. There are 60,000 people employed in the city in that sector alone, she says. Panellist Jo Negrini, chief executive of Croydon council, announced a collaboration with London South Bank University, explaining that the learning economy is at the heart of its regeneration plans.

I then moved on to a fascinating panel on investing in the UK in the UK government pavilion. It was chaired by Mark Slaughter, DIT director-general, investment, and included Avison Young chief executive Mark Rose (soon to move to London with his wife and dogs), Battersea Power Station chief executive Simon Murphy and Grainger chief executive Helen Gordon. All the panellists felt the government could do more to back the property sector and were concerned about the apparent disconnect between the Treasury and other departments. Hopefully the comments will be channelled back to the government.

At this point, the day began to go wrong! I was invited to three lunchtime events that I was very keen to attend, but as I was chairing a panel session at 2pm this presented a logistical problem. I made it to the London Chamber drinks reception, which was a final chance to say farewell to retiring chief executive Colin Stanbridge and to hear from Jules Pipe again. Then I cantered over to the Westminster Property Alliance lunch on the sunny Majestic Hotel terrace. It was very well attended and I would have loved a relaxed lunch in the sun in such illustrious real estate company. Craig McWilliam (new WPA chair and chief executive of Grosvenor GBI) welcomed guests and Ben Rogers from Centre for London talked about their new research ‘London: HQ City’. The report will explore London’s role as the hub for global and European headquarters; how HQ jobs help drive the capital and country’s economy; and how to maintain London’s HQ City role in the future. I look forward to hearing more. Sadly I had to leave before the food was served!

I’m not complaining as I very much enjoyed chairing the proptech panel in the government pavilion. My excellent line-up included Oli Farago, chief executive, Coyote Software; Gabrielle MacMillan, chief executive, Equiem; Sally Jones, head of strategy and investments, British Land; Guy Grainger, EMEA chief executive, JLL; and, joining us from New York, Aaron Block, co-founder and managing director of MetaProp.

It was great to meet Aaron for the first time in real life having often conversed on social media and to be presented with my signed copy of his newly launched book, Proptech 101, which I can’t wait to read.

Catch up on day one of Susan’s Mipim 2019 blog: Construction chaos, high winds and comfortable shoes

They were a terrific panel with a wealth of proptech experience. As well as being the 30th anniversary of Mipim, it’s 30 years since Tim Berners Lee set up the World Wide Web, which opened a whole new world of connection. There is no shortage of tech-driven disruption in real estate. Everywhere you look the sector is affected, whether it’s how property is built, how it’s managed and the relationship with our customers. The panel gave us a great opportunity to discuss the impact of all this disruption, and how as a sector we are responding to and embracing the challenges. Aaron remarked on how the UK is one of the great global hubs and is way ahead in terms of enthusiasm for proptech. MacMillan felt that the UK was a good place to do business and that deals get signed up quicker here. There was a suggestion that Europe should be more joined-up in its approach to tech so as to compete better with the US and Asia.

Aaron had to leave the stage promptly to sprint over to his next proptech event on the other side of the Palais. I joined him there subsequently and was delighted to meet some of my other virtual social media pals in the world of proptech – Adam Balsam and Angelica Donati to name just two.

Proptech panel chaired by Susan Freeman, at Mipim

Then back to the London Stand opening party and then the City drinks reception, which left just minutes left to change to go to the FTI drinks reception, which was already in full swing. Access was circuitous as the Croisette was closed off for the opening party at the Carlton. Then it was on to our dinner with which I started this piece. I still hadn’t had lunch by this time and it was approaching 9pm.

I have already identified a structural problem with my Mipim itinerary. Keeping up with the real estate circuit, as well as getting to the proptech-focused events and social gatherings, is proving quite a challenge. The upside is that I haven’t had a moment to consider the implications of the unravelling Brexit saga.

Hughes stressed the need for leadership and collaboration between the public and private sector, a recurring theme of this year’s conference. I’d second that! Gordon gave an interesting statistic in that apparently Manchester has a 54% graduate retention rate and this is partly because of the strong private rented sector. From the audience, Neil Sinclair of Palace Capital stressed the need to educate investors about opportunities in the regions. Winbanks responded to confirm that this was very much the DIT’s story and that it encourages overseas investors to consider the regions. All very encouraging, although the stormy winds on the Croisette served as a reminder of the ongoing Brexit problems back home.

I had to miss two other breakfasts – huge apologies to the hosts – to make it to the London Stand in time for the collaboration-themed panel I was chairing. There were already snaking queues to get through security and into the Palais so it was just as well I had, uncharacteristically, allowed enough time. 

 En route I encountered JLL’s Guy Grainger who was just about to start his proptech session with Mihir Shah, co-chief executive of JLL Spark, which sadly coincided with mine. My panel subject was ‘Shared visions and collaborative delivery’. My panellists were Sadie Morgan, director of dRMM and commissioner of the National Infrastructure Commission; Sean Ellis, executive director, Berkeley Group; Caroline Harper, chief planner, Be First; Lucy Homer, executive general manager, design and technical, Lendlease; Ros Morgan, chief executive, Heart of London Business Alliance; and Amy Hazlehurst, head of customer success, VU.CITY. In the limited time available, they each gave their own personal take on the need for and benefit of collaborative working. They provided some fascinating and very diverse experiences of using collaboration strategically.

I heard part of the next panel on creating vibrant mixed-use communities, which included Liz Peace and Wandsworth Council leader Ravi Govindia and was chaired by Property Week editor Liz Hamson. As I was collecting my paraphernalia to leave, I missed the question but heard Hamson describing a reply given by Peace as a skilful political answer as she didn’t say yes or no! I made a mental note to ask Peace for some pointers on how to achieve this.

Next up was the London First and EcoWorld lunch back at the same room at the Carlton hotel as had hosted my earlier breakfast. As the weather had warmed up, I was finally wearing my extremely bright acid yellow jacket and I am pleased to report that I haven’t been mistaken for a gilet jaune yet! The lunch attracted an impressive gathering of the great and good of the public and private sector. 

EcoWorld UK chief executive Heng Leong Cheong made a great introductory speech outlining their ambition to reach 10,000 UK rental units in the next five years. As Heng commented, at four years old, EcoWorld UK is a relatively young company but with ambitions to grow in significance. 

Deputy mayor Jules Pipe assured us that whatever happens London will remain a leading city. He gave our excellent legal system a shout-out as a contributor to the attractions of London. If it was a separate nation, London would be the eighth-largest economy in Europe, he said. Pipe needs a special mention in dispatches as he has spoken at so many of the London events I have attended over the last few days. 

I particularly enjoyed catching up with EcoWorld’s Marcus Marland and with Bisnow UK editor Mike Phillips (my former editor at Property Week). It was also useful to discuss with Barking & Dagenham leader Rodwell the proposed outputs from the recent London Councils Housing Conference. Look out for some useful practical suggestions about improving process coming up shortly.

My next lunch was the Investec beach party, an annual event that had the most extraordinary sushi, for those of us whohadn’t already eaten lunch! They always seem to be able to guarantee sunshine.

Then I headed back to the Palais for the Women’s cocktail event at which CBRE’s Amanda Clack spoke about her excellent new book on diversity and inclusion in real estate. She was followed by Chantal Clavier of Heidrick & Struggles on women’s empowerment. 

My next stop was the Innovation Centre, which I finally located on the basement floor. Below ground there was a whole other world of proptech events and I saw an excellent, if long, presentation by Enerbrain, an Italian company that has patented a system of dynamic regulation of HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) systems that improves indoor comfort and reduces consumption for air conditioning.

Then it was sequins on for the Property Week editor’s VIP Mipim dinner, which always includes a select gathering of top real estate personalities for an animated roundtable debate. You will read all about it in Property Week – we covered everything from Brexit and leadership to retail, trust, affordable housing and homelessness. Thank you very much to our hosts New West End Company and James Andrew International for a thought-provoking debate. 

So I think I have covered real estate, diversity and proptech during the course of today. It was a terrific real estate evening but, once again, I missed out on a key proptech event – this time the Metaprop NYC boat party. At this rate, all my virtual proptech acquaintances with whom I communicate on Twitter are going to remain virtual! 

He pointed to exhibitor Egypt, which said it was building 350,000 new affordable homes this year and 300,000 middle-income homes. He suggested that London’s ‘invisible’ mayor should visit Egypt to see how they are achieving this.

He also summed up the view, heard often over the last few days, that ‘London is open for business but the people running London aren’t here’. To be fair, those who were here, including deputy mayor Jules Pipe, have worked tirelessly to promote London.

On a positive note, the Royal Town Planning Institute was here for the first time led by chief executive Victoria Hills, putting planning at the heart of promoting the UK.

The day started with the BPF breakfast panel themed around the challenges and catalysts in city regeneration. An excellent panel chaired by Property Weekeditor Liz Hamson included L&G head of real assets Bill Hughes, who highlighted the challenge of finding constructive partnerships between the public and private sector with both understanding the risks. “Some cities are more constructive. Some are intransigent, and in those cases we walk away,” he said. He also commented that government needs to make local authorities ensure their local plans are more visible so we know where to engage.

Next up was a fascinating City of London Corporation and City Property Association panel  to mark the launch of their ‘London in a changing world’ report. Another excellent line-up included British Land chief executive Chris Grigg, James Young of Cushman & Wakefield, Joe Tasker, David Ainsworth, City Property Association President and WeWork’s David Kaiser, led by the City’s ubiquitous Catherine McGuinness. We were treated to some key stats.

Did you know that 40% of London’s tech workers come from overseas? London is in a war for talent where the quality of workspace really matters. The report is definitely worth a read. Grigg reminded us that the sector is now talking about ‘the customer’ whereas 10 years ago we weren’t interested in what was going on in our buildings. (And when I finished my MBA in 2001 we didn’t even know who the customer was!)

Kaiser talked about the feedback WeWork gets from members (customers). He highlighted the difficulty of attracting and maintaining talent and the importance of upskilling the workforce. WeWork has acquired a coding school and is rolling out coding programmes in some locations. Education will become more important, he said. Absolutely right, especially with the advances of AI. He also said that 50% of the start-ups in WeWork are female, which is an impressive ratio.

From the audience, Henry Taylor a director of RealRec, a specialist real estate sector recruiter, quizzed the panel on the roles they saw becoming more important over the next three to five years. The panel thought that 42% of those roles had not been created yet and warned that real estate would be competing with tech and other non-property companies for the same job skills. Yet more reasons for getting on with upskilling our workforce.

After a quick catch-up with IPSX on the London Stand, it was time for Patricia Brown‘s informal London 3.0 lunch. She had trailed this by saying she was assembling some brilliant minds to discuss what change we needed to plan for in London. I’m not sure how I slipped in but it was good to have Sir Eddie Lister join us as he has such depth of experience in numerous London roles over such a long period. A theme of the discussion was that we cannot afford to rest on our laurels. We have more competition now both from the regions and other global cities so this is the time for a coherent message for London. This sounds like a job for Ms Brown! Thank you to Trowers & Hamlins for hosting.

The afternoon was spent visiting some of the other stands including Manchester, which had a tremendous buzz. This may have been because the inimitable Tom Bloxham of Urban Splash was corralling a panel discussing the exciting new home, the Factory, planned for the Manchester International Festival.

Then it was time for the final-night celebrations, which kicked off with the James Andrew champagne reception, which this year was co-hosted by United Trust Bank. This was the only Mipim party at which smoked salmon was served. The room was absolutely packed, with guests enjoying themselves so much that they showed no sign of leaving at the appointed carriages time.

We then spent the rest of the evening at La Petite Maison, my favourite Cannes restaurant. However, having had my menu choices pre-determined by set menus at the week’s Mipim events, I found it difficult to get back to making my own decisions! I have to say, I can’t think of a better combination of real estate and proptech companions to have dinner with (and play Tom Bloxham’s version of the truth game). Thank you Charlie Green, Savannah de Savary, Aaron Block, Tom Bloxham, Angelica Donati, Dan Hughes and Tyler Goodwin for making the last night of Mipim such fun.

I think I finally managed to bring real estate and proptech together at Mipim. Hopefully next year we can do more to integrate the growing international proptech and innovation agenda with the rest of the exhibitors. I hope you have enjoyed this week’s Mipim blogs. If so please follow me on Twitter @Propertyshe for an ongoing commentary on all things real estate and proptech.

Although it’s still very breezy, the sun is shining as the Department for International Trade (DIT) opens its content packed MIPIM programme with the British Property Federation.

There was even a long queue to enter the conference as overzealous security guards wouldn’t let us in a minute before 9am.

The first panel was an impressive line-up of metro mayors including ex-John Lewis chief executive Andy Street, now the mayor of the West Midlands Combined Authority. He talked about the de-industrialisation of brownfield land to bring life back to communities. All the metro mayors hinted intriguingly of announcements to come.

Clearly although there is healthy competition between them, they are all aligned in doing the best for their communities. The diversity issue was touched upon with Street pointing out to London First chair Jasmine Whitbread that she had to be there for him to be able to appear on the panel, presumably because he can’t sit on single-sex panels.

It was good to catch up on the London stand with TfL commercial director Graeme Craig, who tells me he now runs a 70-strong development team working on 50 schemes. Its extensive programme includes 3,000-plus homes this year and it will be moving into PRS in a big way, and also modular construction.

The sun is shining in Cannes but there is lots going on inside the pavilion

At Morden, he tells me, it is working with the council on the town centre, which is intended to be a model for other town centre rollouts. It will also be creating something transformational in its mobile coverage. With the impending opening of the Elizabeth line, TfL is seeking six sector-exclusive corporate sponsors to be long-term partners helping promote the new line. The entrance fee for each sponsor will be £6.5m.

’Inadequate investment in R&D’

I enjoyed the next DIT panel on innovation chaired by JLL’s Guy Grainger, who has definitely missed his vocation on the stage. I was particularly impressed by the energy of new Lendlease head of offices Sherin Aminossehe, who was parachuted on to the panel straight from the airport. In just a few hours at Mipim she apparently spoke on two panels and did one vox pop, one pod cast, three catch-ups and two business meetings. She was back in London by 6pm. Is this some sort of record? The panel touched on the government’s inadequate investment in R&D. Construction is a massive part of our GDP, they said, and yet there is minimal investment in research. The need for new methods of construction and shortage of constructions skills were discussed and Aminossehe even challenged Crest Nicholson’s Steve Stone in the audience to lead the way on building quality.

Panellist Mark Reynolds of Mace said “shame on industry for not collaborating more”. There is innovation, he said, but people are not sharing ideas.

In animated @tradegovuk #innovation panel Mark Reynolds of @MaceGroup says shame on #construction industry for not collaborating. There is innovation but no sharing of ideas, he says. #MIPIM pic.twitter.com/4kX1wB3i1b

— Susan Freeman (@Propertyshe) March 13, 2018

It was a quick sprint, avoiding the public realm roadworks that seem to be everywhere in Cannes this year, to the London Chamber drinks reception where president Tony Pidgley once again welcomed deputy mayor for planning Jules Pipe for their rousing annual Mipim double act. It was a great London turnout with the top echelons of many London developers and Pipe also touched on skills as a huge issue for the construction industry. It got me thinking of who made up the Cannes construction workforce!

Then another sprint down to the Majestic through further street works to the Westminster Property Alliance lunch with Sheffield Property Association. This lunch has now become a regular Mipim fixture, although with the local elections looming, Westminster Council was notable by its absence this year.

Another canter down the Croisette to the beach drinks reception hosted by resi developer Moda, which was in full swing when I arrived. It was useful to catch up with hosts Tony and Oscar Brooks. They told me they are focusing on build-to-rent development and aim to design, build and operate their schemes. They are able to take a long-term 30-year view. Their recent tie-up with Uber indicates that they are prepared to take an innovative approach. They were celebrating having just got planning consent for their Glasgow scheme.

Women’s networking

It was then back to the Palais to represent Women Talk Real Estate at a women’s networking reception sponsored by Ivanhoe Cambridge. This was open to the many nationalities attending Mipim, although the Brits and the French seemed the largest contingents. One or two men were in attendance, including The Guardian’s wealth correspondent! On the way back, the most important event was the purchase of a coat to combat the chilly night-time weather.

Good turn out for #women’s #MIPIM networking event. Delighted to be here representing @womentalkRE pic.twitter.com/eTszbL8iIX

— Susan Freeman (@Propertyshe) March 13, 2018

We had to pick our way through the glitzy Mipim opening night party at the Carlton to reach the FTI drinks party at its new plage-side venue. Hosted by former Property Week editor Giles Barrie, it was well very well attended as always and a good opportunity to catch up with the real estate world’s glitterati. Then it was on to the Mishcon de Reya Tuesday night client dinner at the Petite Maison where a last-minute table switch meant a quick reinvention of the table plan. All worked seamlessly and conversation flowed well into the early hours against the backdrop of a great live band.

A perfect end to a long day and nearly time to get going for an early breakfast.

To read this article on Property Week, please click here.

It was another bright but early start for the BPF Investors Breakfast, which always draws a great crowd. This year, in a new departure, instead of one speaker there was a panel that included Landsec chief executive Rob Noel, GVA’s Gerry Hughes and Homes England’s Louise Wyman.

It was another bright but early start for the BPF Investors Breakfast, which always draws a great crowd. This year, in a new departure, instead of one speaker there was a panel that included Landsec chief executive Rob Noel, GVA’s Gerry Hughes and Homes England’s Louise Wyman. The discussion was around the important topic of what makes for a successful public/private sector partnership.

Noel reckons that “a common goal and trust” are essential. Other prerequisites were clarity of objective, an ability to flex and change and, of course, political stability. Hughes said that clients were concerned about the current political uncertainty as it affects long-term arrangements. This is an issue that is coming up at many Mipim debates this year.

Strong leadership was also cited as an essential and reference was made to Sir Howard Bernstein and what he achieved for Manchester. Palace Capital’s Neil Sinclair asked from the floor how the public and private sectors would be able to work together if John McDonnell became chancellor. The panel dealt with this well and felt that the private sector would find a way. Veteran real estate investor Sinclair, who experienced London in the 1970s, did not look convinced.

Housing crisis focus

I then hoofed it down a very busy Croisette to a heaving London stand where ebullient London Chamber president Tony Pidgley of Berkeley Homes was speaking to a wrapt audience. On a similar theme to the BPF panel, he said public/private sector collaboration was key to solving the housing crisis.

Fortunately nobody asked the John McDonnell question! “Why does it take so long to sign a s106 agreement?” he asked rhetorically. “Let’s get the government to recognise there is a housing crisis,” he said, “and let’s get on with Crossrail 2 so we can provide homes.”

On the question of skills shortage, Pidgley told the audience that 60% of his labour force is from Europe. His company Berkeley is trying to help address the skills shortage with apprenticeships and skill academies. It has invested in a factory and is now building modular with units coming out ready carpeted. On the subject of small housebuilders, Pidgley said when he started he used to have 40 competitors and now there are only two! He expressed surprise when an audience member said the recent Letwin report blamed the housebuilders rather than the planning system for restricting housing supply. No doubt we will hear more about this.

Putting Wembley on the map

The next panel featured the inspirational double act of Barking & Dagenham council leader Darren Rodwell and his chief executive Chris Naylor. The GLA’s David Lunts jokingly pointed out that Barking & Dagenham was a bigger crowd-puller than Tony Pidgley! It was their marriage of “vision, commitment and passion” that attracted people. Rodwell said it was ridiculous that he was the most senior London politician at Mipim.

Naylor really nailed it talking about the problem of the perception of the development sector, which needs to be seen as part of the solution to the housing crisis. He made it clear that Barking only wants to deal with developers who see affordable housing as a long-term investment. If the private sector doesn’t see itself as the solution to providing council housing then it should say so, he said.

This session was followed by an excellent build-to-rent panel chaired by Alex Notay of Places for People, which discussed the growing UK sector. I had to leave but heard Apache’s Richard Jackson saying we needed to learn from the standards of service provided in the US. It will be interesting to see how far the UK model follows the US in terms of amenities.

After absorbing all this content in quick succession, lunch beckoned at the Investec beach party on the Croissette. I have observed a new trend this Mipim in that a number of guests have only flown in for the day. A number told me they had come to Cannes solely to attend Investec’s party. This is a testament to the hosts who lay on quite a spread featuring excellent sushi and champagne. It was so enjoyable chatting beachside that I have to admit to missing a few DIT panels on strategic housing growth and design that I had intended to go to.

Quintain had a drinks reception on its impressive new London stand celebrating Wembley’s inclusion in the Pipers London model, which really puts Wembley Park on the map.

As a Wembley girl at heart, it’s great to see the @wembleypark @QuintainLtd model with its distinctive Stadium take centre stage on the #London Stand! #MIPIM #heritage #community #buildtorent pic.twitter.com/LISKy7kDoF

— Susan Freeman (@Propertyshe) March 15, 2018

Then it was my panel on ‘London is open: diversity as a mindset’. My excellent fellow panellists were New West Company’s Jace Tyrrell, Emma Cariaga from British Land and Killian Hurley from Mount Anvil. We had a far-reaching debate and I got to discuss one of my favourite topics: the dangers of ‘comfortable clone syndrome’.

I was proud to be able to say that 57% of our real estate lawyers at Mishcon de Reya are women and that we were the first London law firm to have a non-solicitor chairman. We covered some wide-ranging issues including how to attract people with different backgrounds and skills into real estate to make a difference.

To everyone’s surprise, the Inaugural Homes England reception on the DIT stand had people queuing outside, which shows the regard for the new Homes England team and bodes well for the excellent work they are doing .

Dinner delight

Finally the long-awaited Property Week editor’s dinner. Now in its third year, this event, chaired by Liz Hamson, is sponsored by James Andrew International and New West End Company. It attracts a top-rate crowd drawn from all aspects of real estate who are expected to sing meaningfully for their supper.

This year guests included Manchester’s Tom Bloxham and TV architect George Clarke, who has just invested in Urban Splash. We covered a huge amount of ground and I won’t detract from the forthcoming Property Week feature, other than to say the ‘trust’ word and benign dictatorships were discussed quite a lot!

There we were having a totally absorbing #realestate debate while... #MIPIM https://t.co/CKvmaocusc

— Susan Freeman (@Propertyshe) March 14, 2018

The real strength of Mipim is the random encounters. I was delighted to connect with proptech expert Eddie Holmes who I know well virtually. He is much taller in real life than he looks on Twitter!

Sadly there was no Tristan party this year but hopefully it will be back next year. Having said that, the music was still pounding at another beach party until 1:30 in the morning!

To read this article on Property Week, please click here.

We woke on Thursday morning to the sound of torrential rain and the wind whistling menacingly through the windows. As we Mipim veterans know, this is bad for those hosting beach and boat parties but a boon for the conference organisers as everyone huddles into the Palais with no great incentive to leave.

Thankfully my breakfast meeting with JLL’s Guy Grainger was at the Carlton and he had very resourcefully nabbed a table in the bar before the long queue for the restaurant had formed. Nobody wanted to give up their tables as they were not at all keen to venture outside.

The continental European men were instantly recognisable by their double-knotted scarves. The Brits clearly hadn’t received that memo! Umbrellas were in short supply but I had the foresight to commandeer mine from the hotel the night before. It was just as well as even the relatively short walk to my lunch venue left me soaked and windswept. Not a good look.

Our build-to-rent lunch at the award-winning Martinez Palme D’Or restaurant hosted by the London Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by Cast, Turley, Get Living London and Interserve was a great success. Although we couldn’t use the sun terrace for fear of drowning, we were treated to a fantastic lunch. We heard from Darren Rodwell, the ebullient leader of Barking and Dagenham Council, and “the bureaucrats”, as he put it, from Manchester and Birmingham.

Rodwell told us about the work Be First, Barking’s new development company is doing and vowed to build 60,000 homes in 25 years and to stop gentrification. The problem, he said, is “making money on the back of vulnerable people” and he doesn’t want to see our principles “destroyed by greed”. A developer in the audience took great umbrage at the suggestion that developers were greedy, which led to a lively exchange, but they seemed to subsequently resolve their differences. Talking to Rodwell after the debate, he referred to the London commuter belt as being shaped like an octopus rather than a doughnut! That’s something I hadn’t considered before!

Focal point

I began to feel I was stalking Rodwell as he was speaking on the next London and Manchester panel on on the London stand. I came in just in time to hear him say that Brexit is a waste of time and money. Manchester leader Sir Richard Leese said that cities need to be part of the Brexit discussion, which seems fair enough. It was good to have time to catch up with some familiar faces on the London stand. Paul Finch, editor of the Architectural Review and Architects’ Journal, ran his wrap-up at the earlier time of 4pm to accommodate the panel. We even had a few interesting minutes to talk real estate history, on the subject of the legendary Harry Hyams, his architect John Seiffert and the building of London’s Centre Point.

The London stand excelled itself this Mipim and was a real focal point, although it has to be said that the wifi was not its strongest point. Maybe capacity was affected by the sheer number of delegates but, with the increasing focus on tech, this is something we have to sort out before next Mipim.

The highlight of Thursday evening at Mipim is always the James Andrew International party, this year without co-host Coutts. Invitations to this event are always highly sought after but I have never seen the room so busy with the top real estate dealmakers. And I hadn’t appreciated before that the smoked salmon served throughout the evening had apparently travelled with me from London. It’s probably best not to know! It was great to meet some of property’s new generation such as Freddie McAlpine, scion of the McAlpine family who is working with James Andrew. In his spare time he is a talented metal sculptor. I was very impressed.

Thank you Harvey Soning and James Andrew International for the best attended #MIPIM party and the only event serving #London smoked salmon! As always the room was packed with #realestate deal makers pic.twitter.com/Kmlh1fp4WH

— Susan Freeman (@Propertyshe) March 16, 2018

Then it was dinner at Petite Maison where, over the excellent but loud live music, I chatted to TV architect George Clarke who has recently invested in Tom Bloxham’s Urban Splash. He told me about his Ministry of Building Innovation, which is working generationally to promote the teaching of construction industry skills in the regions. It sounds an amazing initiative and he is clearly passionate about this initiative. Apologies to Tom Bloxham, a Mipim co-conspirator of too many years to remember, for having to bail out on the after-dinner bar trail he organised for our party! I really enjoyed the truth game for our table. A remarkable way to get to know your fellow diners.

Invest in Great Britain

It was, despite the antisocial weather, a great day and a particularly good Mipim. Landsec chief executive Rob Noel remarked at the London Chamber lunch that it was his first visit to Mipim since 2002. He was there this year in his BPF capacity and he was impressed by the way it had grown, the number of countries now represented and the conference programme. A number of senior British property representatives have mentioned the benefit of being to meet with European counterparts all in one place.

And certainly the government presence lends weight to the ‘invest in Great Britain’ message. The excellent Department for International Trade pavilion has really come into its own this year with a full on programme of events co-hosted with the BPF. At times it has been difficult to divide myself between the panels on the London stand and the government stand and there has definitely been no time for the Palais conference programme.

No doubt there will be articles in the press talking down Mipim but that shouldn’t detract from what has been for most of us a fantastic business event. Many deals have been done and there has been much useful exchange particularly between the many representatives of central and local government and the private sector. As one of my favourite Twitter combatants Ellandi’s Mark Robinson and I agreed on over dinner last night, it is the random encounters at Mipim that make it so very worthwhile.

To read this article on Property Week, please click here.

The good thing about arriving early is getting the chance to have a look around before MIPIM opens on Tuesday morning and the mad scramble begins to get to all your meetings, events and speaking engagements on time.

At dinner last night with agent extraordinaire Harvey Soning and New West End Company (NWEC) Chief Executive Jace Tyrrell, we were able to discuss all things West End related and to plan strategy for some of our combined events this week.

The Department for International Trade have done a tremendous job of promoting their Invest in Great Britain campaign on every moving and non-moving surface in Cannes. See below pics of their huge banner above the Palais de Festivals, the nerve centre of MIPIM, and on the MIPIM courtesy cars. In a MIPIM first, they have their own Government pavilion and will be flying out Ministers and senior officials who will be speaking at a series of debates. I'm honoured to have been included in tomorrow afternoon's panel on 'Public Private Partnerships: The Future is Innovative,' when I hope to be able to talk about our Collaborators initiative with Estates Gazette which has just launched for its third year.

Lunch today was with another of my co-collaborators, Pat Brown. Pat reminded me that it's 17 years since the New York study trip she organised to investigate Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and to see if the New York model would work in London. Others on that historic trip included Tony Travers, Jackie Sadek and Alistair Subba-Row. We came back enthused and motivated and the Circle Initiative was born which brought in the early BIDs. We have come a long way with this important public/private partnership model which has enhanced many parts of London and other parts of the UK where BIDs have been adopted. 

My next meeting was with NWEC BID CEO Jace Tyrrell and the London Communications Agency team to discuss arrangements for our Labour and Conservative Party Conference Dinners in the Autumn. Nothing beats thinking ahead!

I finished the afternoon over tea with Laura Mazzeo of architects Farrells. We covered a huge range of thought provoking issues including the influx of Chinese developers into the UK, the differences between the development process in Hong Kong and London, the effect of artificial intelligence on jobs and lifestyle and designing buildings so they can be repurposed as necessary. Laura has lived and worked in many different places so has a good overview of cultural differences.

Dinner was at Cannes institution Maschou in the old town, courtesy of Harvey Soning and NWEC. Guests included Cllr Robert Davis, Sir Peter Rogers, EG editor Damian Wild and Barry Williamson, Head of Coutts Real Estate. The restaurant specialises in meat cooked in their special wood fired oven.

A busy first day and an early night ready for tomorrow's packed agenda.

 

It's all about collaboration at MIPIM this year. The 'C' word as EG Editor's Damian Wild puts it. From the panels on the London stand and in the British Government pavilion to the lunches and other events. It's particularly encouraging as we have just launched the third year of our Collaborators initiative with EG. The Collaborators rewards those, particularly in the public and private sector, who come together to collaborate in order to improve the built environment.

In the Palais the Barking and Dagenham panel, featuring Lord Bob Kerslake, David Lunts and council leader Darren Rodwell, positively fizzed with enthusiasm for their new regeneration company Be First. Owned by the council, the company will work with private sector developers to share in the gains of housing development to create great places for the borough. 'The South of France is OK' said Rodwell 'but I prefer Southend'. I know what he means.

Next up was a placemaking panel including Deputy Leader of Westminster Cllr Robert Davis who is in charge of placemaking for Westminster. They are working with the London Mayor to facilitate many improvements to areas including Victoria, Oxford St and Bond St. Davis stressed the importance of having a vision and leading in order to change places for the better. New West End Company CEO Jace Tyrrell asked the audience who had heard of BIDs. Gratifyingly 50% of the audience said they had. BIDs are the ultimate public/private sector collaboration as they bring local authority and private sector together with key stakeholders such as Transport for London to bring local projects to life.

Then a quick walk across the packed Croisette for the London Chamber annual MIPIM reception accessed this year with a special gold card. With a full capacity audience, deputy mayor Jules Pipe spoke alongside Berkeley Homes Chairman Tony Pidgley. A terrific public/ private sector speaking collaboration! Both spoke enthusiastically about supporting fiscal devolution for London and the importance of development near transport hubs.

On to Westminster Property Association/ New West End Company annual MIPIM lunch on the terrace of the Majestic Hotel. There were rousing speeches from The Crown Estate's James Cooksey, Westminster's Cllr Robert Davis, Deputy Mayor Jules Pipe and public realm expert Lucy Cosgrave. Again the theme was placemaking and good design. The emphasis was on public and private sector working together to improve their area. And Westminster do this in spades. Jules Pipe praised the work Westminster has done and declared that the GLA wants to help town halls get back their passion for the built environment. 'Westminster heritage has been preserved under the careful hand of Robert', he said. He also recognised the civic quality of Westminster's public realm. Lucy Cosgrave spoke of the collaboration between Westminster, TfL and private developers to create civic transformation around Crossrail. She said that other cities were taking note and that private sector had helped deliver. 'It is a golden moment in civic leadership. We should deliver with flair and ambition' she said.

Since the talk of MIPIM has been the huge presence of the British Government at MIPIM, I was really excited to be on a public/private sector panel in the Government pavilion. Chaired by EG Editor Damian Wild, the panel included Argent's David Partridge, Paul Clark from Capita, Ed Casal and Renos Booth from Aviva, Lyn Garner, Haringey Regeneration director and Gordon More from HCA. With further discussion of the important 'C' word, I was able to talk about our Collaborators initiative with EG, just launching for its third year and why it came about.

The remainder of the early evening was spent at drinks receptions courtesy of Lloyds Bank and FTI and then on to our Tuesday night MIPIM dinner at La Petite Maison. Once again we managed to assemble some of the most interesting real estate entrepreneurs in UK and Hong Kong and the conversation flowed as freely as the wine and delicious food accompanied by the Gypsy Kings or similar.

The organisers pulled out all the stops for this year's MIPIM opening party. The Croisette was closed, there were rows of vintage cars outside the Carlton Hotel and early Beatles numbers on a content loop. I assume it must have been a 60s theme although I can't explain the people dressed for a Mad Hatters Tea Party! May be it was a Purim thing... (a Jewish festival celebrated by some serious dressing up).

 

This morning started early with the excellent British Property Federation and GVA International Investors breakfast. It was a pleasure to catch up with Mount Anvil's Killian Hurley on issues such as tackling the skills shortage and public/private sector collaboration. In his keynote speech, Paul Brundage of Oxford Properties gave us a timely reminder that uncertainty creates opportunities and that international investors are still bullish about the UK. We were also reminded that at the same event last year an audience poll expected us to vote against Brexit! It shows how wrong you can be.

Then I hot footed it down to the London Stand for a succession of high quality and thought provok-ing panels. They were so interesting that I remained firmly in my seat until lunchtime, which wasn't my original intention.

First on was Tony Pidgley's Q&A with Peter Murray on building for the mega city. Mr Pidgley was in fine form. He called for a review of the greenbelt. I hope the government representatives down here at MIPIM were listening. He also put forward the case for fiscal devolution to the London Mayor.

Then there followed a rousing panel representing east London, investing in the east. As at yester-day's panel you can't fail to be impressed by the enthusiasm of Barking & Dagenham Leader Dar-ren Rodwell. He was joined by Newham leader Sir Robin Wales and Deputy London Mayor Jules Pipe. To much applause, they outlined the success of east London including of course the legacy of the Olympics at Stratford. Post Brexit 'the working classes will get on with it' said Rodwell. 'East London will be leading the way!'

Then a panel posing the question, 'What is the value of placemaking'? This panel included Martin Jepson of Brookfield, Lucy Musgrave of Publica and David Twohig of Battersea Power Station. Lucy Musgrave spoke eloquently of the need for public spaces to be elegant and beautiful when quiet. The authenticity point is critical, she said. Interestingly, architect Matthias Hollwich said the test of a successful place is whether people talk to each other in the lift. The panel discussed a better term for placemaking which Musgrave says has become jargon. She suggested 'civic urbanism'. Any other thoughts?

Next was a panel on unlocking value through transport investment. New West End Company Chairman Sir Peter Rogers contended that the London Mayor Sadiq Khan's first term will be judged on whether he has fulfilled promises on pollution, pedestrianisation and health.

The morning's final panel on the London Stand was on modular housing. It was good to welcome Manchester's Tom Bloxham to the London Stand. Maybe the new proximity of the Manchester Stand to the London Stand facilitated his journey! Sir Eddie Lister pointed out 'we are still at the foothills of modular'. He said we need to push modular with the funds so that they invest. He also made the point that good quality is important.

Investec have certainly chosen the right year to reinstate their client beach party which for many years was a mainstay of the MIPIM scene. Today the weather was perfect although there is still talk of last year's unseasonably wet Wednesday when we were huddled together to keep out of the cold wind and dripping rain. Cannes is not designed for wet weather!

Savills annual MIPIM lunch on the beach, featuring the great and good of residential real estate also benefited from the sunny weather. So much so that, having learnt from experience, I was handing out sunscreen.

The Property Week Editor's dinner now into its second year was a great success. Sponsored by James Andrew International and New West End Company and chaired by Editor Liz Hamson the dinner brought together the brightest and best in real estate. We managed to achieve a great mix of views and sectors. I will leave Property Week to tell you what we discussed round the table!

My night finished at the wildly wonderful Tristan After Dark party. They once again pulled out all the stops to create the most amazing glittering party on the beach. I think the glitter will be with me for weeks to come!

It's still all about collaboration (the famous C word) and we are delighted to be launching The Collaborators initiative for 2017 with EG. See The Collaborators magazine 2016 and read all about this exciting initiative that rewards and promotes collaboration in the built environment.

It was another early start this morning. This time for the Movers & Shakers/JLL UK Cities Breakfast. I have to say that the short stroll along the Croisette to the JLL beachside pavilion certainly trumped my normal dawn racing drive through London's Mayfair to reach the usual Dorchester breakfast venue. The panel was on top form, extolling the virtues of Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh and beyond. Central's Patricia Brown referring to our cities' individual DNAs asked the panel to describe the personality of each of their cities. The best answer was from Eamonn Boylan, the recently anointed CEO of Greater Manchester, who described Manchester as 'a place of balls, brains and global firsts'! He was of course quoting from a local poet. He acknowledged that this description was 'a bit macho'. In a clever retort, the GLA's Executive Director Housing and Land, David Lunts described London as 'outgoing, curious and...gender neutral'!

Boylan talked about the all-important collaboration between the UK's local regional cities being better than ever. But, he warned that we need to maintain an international perspective as our cities are competing with the likes of Barcelona, Paris and Berlin. Birmingham City's leader, Cllr John Clancy acknowledged the backing the government was giving to attract investment to UK cities but the next step, he said, is finding financial models that work. JLL's Katie Kopec acknowledged that the OJEU process to acquire public land puts people off. Central government needs to make it easier.  

Then back onto the Croisette to the London Stand in time for the Northbank BID brunch. With Deputy Leader Cllr Robert Davis in attendance, Capco's Andy Hicks spoke about Covent Garden's role in this important collaboration between Westminster and local landlords and businesses. Chatting to Ruth Duston, CEO of the Northbank BID later, she talked about the new energy around this cultural quarter as the BID is facilitating redevelopment and redesign of the area. 'Collaboration is key' she said, without any prompting from me!

Minister for Housing and London, Gavin Barwell MP was speaking in the UK Government pavilion but he was due to be guest speaker at my next event so I moved swiftly on. The London Chamber of Commerce, build to rent developer Essential Living and Cast Consultancy laid on a spectacular build to rent lunch at the famous Palme D'Or restaurant at the Martinez Hotel with the Minister as guest of honour. This was one of many fixtures in his packed MIPIM agenda.

Unusually, guests were lined up for professional photos on the way in to the lunch. I initially thought these were our hosts, until fellow guests quickly explained that we were in the presence of some revered ex professional rugby players!  In an amusing interlude, Harry Downes, of build to rent developers Fizzy, showered me in fizzy bubbly whilst attempting to get out a Fizzy business card while holding a glass of champagne. All in a good cause though!

Over lunch, I had a chance to catch up with Jason Sibthorpe on his exciting new career with Canadian based Avison Young, which describes itself as the world's fastest-growing commercial real estate services company. I predict you will be hearing a lot more about them in the UK. I hope to have the opportunity to meet the company's founder, Mark Rose, who - as Jason explains it -started the company because he wanted to create an antidote to the big corporate approach. Watch that space.

Our guest of honour, Minister Gavin Barwell MP, did a very speedy canter through the recent white paper with a particular focus on those aspects affecting build to rent. He flagged the fact that he wants more institutional investors to back build to rent. He acknowledged that the housing crisis is most acute in London and spoke of his building a good relationship with the London mayor and, importantly, the deputy mayor for housing, James Murray. This is clearly a very useful and necessary cross party collaboration. There were name checks in his speech for Cast Consultancy, with the Minister expressing his gratitude to Cast's Mark Farmer for the role he has played in trying to modernise the construction sector. He also remarked that he was interested in Liz Peace's CIL review and its suggestion that the government set a national tariff rate that is collected locally although he stressed that they haven't yet decided what to do. Hopefully there will be a decision coming up soon as I'm told that the report has been in since the autumn.

As Essential's Darryl Flay joked in his closing speech, his friend and guest, retired rugby star Victor Ubogu had managed to source the most expensive restaurant in Cannes. Perhaps it was as the standard of food and service was superb and was very much appreciated by the great and good of the world of real estate who clearly enjoyed this special event. On a serious note, Flay talked of the many opportunities for local authorities and the public sector to collaborate and predicted that the build to rent sector will end up larger than the commercial property sector. I had delayed my flight back to London so as not to miss this event and I'm delighted that I did.

I was obliged to cut short my MIPIM trip this year so I can get to a family wedding in Miami on Friday morning. Sadly, this means that I am missing the James Andrew International/Coutts & Co Thursday night reception, a great co-hosting collaboration and one of my favourite MIPIM events that, as a rule, I never miss. The good news is that I'm not missing Tom Bloxham's legendary Friday BBQ, as it's apparently not happening this year (or that's what I was told!) I'd like to think it's because I'm leaving Cannes early, but of course it's not!

So thank you to all the clients, contacts co-collaborators and friends new and old who have helped to make this a very special and productive MIPIM. And a particular mention to those at the Department for International Trade who were responsible for bringing the UK Government presence and support to MIPIM. It was widely remarked upon and a great fillip for the British contingent at MIPIM to have the government there helping to promote inward investment. Another Great British collaboration!

After a longish lead in period and a wonderfully relaxed dinner hosted by London Chamber's Mark Collins and Colin Stanbridge, it was great to get started in earnest on MIPIM day one. The weather, which is clearly going to be a feature of this year's MIPIM, was warm enough for breakfast on the Carlton Terrace with Gabrielle Berring from Lloyds Bank. We compared itineraries and wardrobes before starting in the gruelling round of meetings, seminars and meals. We agreed that a mix of existing contacts and new was the ideal mix for MIPIM.                                 

The London Stand was the busiest I've seen it for the opening morning. Fortunately the sun terrace was open as the stand wouldn't have accommodated everyone inside.

An interesting transport panel chaired by London Chamber's Colin Stanbridge included Fiona Fletcher Smith and Transport for London Commercial Director Graeme Craig. There was discussion around the importance of infrastructure to London and the announcements in the Budget on Crossrail 2 and how that will be funded by London. TfL have a wealth of opportunities and the question in the short term is how we address planning and design to ensure Londoners see the benefit as soon as possible.

A panel discussing what we want from the next London mayor gave City of Westminster Cllr Robert Davis, the opportunity to voice his concerns. 'Housing is the single biggest issue,' he said and he wants to see a clear programme of concerted measures to address this. He wants the Mayor to help with affordable housing and to work collaboratively with other boroughs. He is also looking for leadership in pan London initiatives. 'Importantly,' said Cllr Davis, 'the Mayor needs to focus on strategic issues and not interfere in the detail.' (Clearly there had been offending interference, but of which sort we were not privy to!). 'There should be a partnership between the Mayor's office and the London local authorities.' Berkeley's Tony Pidgley cited the importance of infrastructure as it drives housing. He is concerned about SDLT as it has caused transaction numbers to drop. Not a good thing. 'The Mayor,' he says, 'must be pragmatic and build houses. We have to get public and private sector working together and mustn't be held up by central government.'

Stanhope's Mark Ridley pointed to build to rent as important for large schemes as it can be up and running twice as fast. It is also backed by a different pool of funding than for sale housing. Cllr Davis finished the debate saying 'local authorities are best placed to make local decisions. The Mayor should put politics aside and work with all of us.'

The next event was the London Chamber drinks reception with words from their President Tony Pidgley in which the negative effect of the SDLT hikes again featured. We were also addressed by Deputy Mayor Sir Eddie Lister. It was then straight to a fantastic lunch hosted by New West End Company, WPA and Levy in the picturesque gardens of the Majestic Hotel. Lunch was followed by a client meeting, Lloyds drinks reception, FTI and Santander drinks reception before assembling for our annual Mishcon de Reya dinner for clients and friends at the unparalleled Petite Maison. Everyone was on top form and the terrific live music inevitably led to some lively post dinner dancing.

 

After a late night following our lively MIPIM dinner I was on parade bright and early (but without a voice!) Some of our guests seemed similarly afflicted. The early start was for the BPF International Investor Breakfast sponsored by Bilfinger GVA. It was an impressive international turnout with standing room only for latecomers. We were informed that although MIPIM delegates were here in record numbers, the French delegation had again pipped the Brits at the post and, at the last moment, beaten us to be the largest MIPIM delegation. This was possibly due in some way to the presence of the French interior Minister, whose ten car cavalcade I saw yesterday as he visited the London Stand. He was surrounded by swarms of police, minders and camera crews. I doubt that our Housing and Planning minister Brandon Lewis MP will have that sort of entourage when he makes his flying visit to MIPIM.

At the BPF breakfast speakers dwelt on the likely market effects of the upcoming EU Referendum. SEGRO CEO, David Sleath, spoke of the build to rent sector beginning to attract investors. He described it as a fantastic way to solve the housing crisis whilst attracting good returns for investors. 

Then, as the rain clouds gathered, there was time for a quick race up the Croisette to catch LCA's Robert Gordon Clark interviewing London Chamber President, Tony Pidgley. "After 50 years of house building", he says, "why are we such NIMBYs and why can't house building be a force for good?" Even before the Budget, Mr Pidgley was asking "where is the sense of SDLT?"  "We need to get on with infrastructure", he said, "and the continual drive at taxing isn't good." And,in support of the build to rent sector, he added "there's nothing wrong with renting". I haven't yet had a chance to hear his views on the surprise SDLT provisions announced in the Budget.

The EU referendum came up again of course, as it has done at every panel discussion. In a lighter moment, Pidgley quipped that as President of the London Chamber he wouldn't have to fall on his sword if he gave a personal view on the referendum as CEO Colin Stanbridge would stick it in him! Commenting on 'superb' Peter John, Leader of Southwark, Pidgley described him as someone who makes things happen and went on to suggest that the London Council leaders should make up the London Assembly, working with the Mayor to make things happen. "Collaboration and partnership is important", he added.

Capco's coffee bar on the London Standreally came into its own as the weather deteriorated. Delegates huddled together looking for a heater or a hot drink. At one point the queue for coffee snaked right round their stand. Lunch in a beach restaurant was a somewhat soggy affair as the high winds buffeted the awnings and rain dripped onto our table. I was entertained by pop up provider, Appear Here's Ross Bailey and his French partner, who has just launched their Paris operation. We then braved the storm to go back to the Carlton for meetings. With everyone scrabbling for a table inside, it became survival of the fittest in the hotel bar.

There was just time to change into dry clothes before setting off in the still pouring rain for Property Week's inaugural Editor's dinner, hosted by James Andrew International and New West End Company. There was a great cross section of the industry represented and guests were treated to a fabulous dinner. I was banned from tweeting but you will be able to read about our animated discussion shortly in Property Week. Sadly my voice had disappeared by this point,so I had to play voyeur for much of the evening.  

The final stop after fighting our way through the high winds and driving rain was the spectacular Tristan Capital beach party. The fitting theme this year was super heroes and it was encouraging to see so many from the real estate sector dressed as caped crusaders!

Collaboration and networking are key at MIPIM – read Susan's Estates Gazette article here.

My day started with an early Movers & Shakers breakfast on devolution co-hosted with JLL. JLL's Katie Kopec set the scene with a canter through the comparative tax take across a number of international cities. London only retains 7% of its tax income although, from next year, its councils  will retain 100% business rates. We learnt that New York retains 23% of its income tax and that Berlin has a dog tax. Devolution is under way and cities that control more tax can invest in local infrastructure. More, she said, will be happening in collaboration and following the Budget announcement of  combined authorities, local authorities will be working together. As George Osborne said 'North, South, East and West the devolution revolution is under way.'

Panellist Sir Eddie Lister referred to the £80m allocated in the Budget to Crossrail 2 as key, as it will enable a hybrid Bill by 2018. The Bill, he explained  is important as we will otherwise spend 33 years debating it! Also we need to be better at taxing the uplift in property values. A TIF, he suggested, is needed to bring benefits. 'This time we want the cash', he said.

Audience member Jace Tyrrell of New West End Company asked how the panel see the role of the 200 UK BIDs. Sir Eddie said that with more devolution, BIDs will have a better idea of what is needed. The session ended with a well-deserved round of applause for London Deputy Mayor and Chief of Staff, Sir Eddie Lister, for his contribution to MIPIM over a number of years.

It's just as well that Housing & Planning Minister Brandon Lewis MP brought sunny weather to Cannes. He arrived in the wake of 'wet Wednesday' and of the Budget, which had itself caused something of a storm. When the BPF issues a press release containing the words 'extremely disappointing' and 'deals a huge blow to the build-to-rent sector,' you know you have cause for concern. His lightning one day visit contained the usual diverse schedule of events. The Minister started with a CBRE breakfast on PRS and he then addressed a packed City Property Association, London Chamber, Bilfinger GVA lunch at the Radisson Blu Hotel. During the Q&A session, Pocket CEO Marc Vlessing said it took him 18 months to buy public sector land and 6 months to buy private sector land. What was the government going to do about it? The Minister assured us it was a problem he was aware of and to 'watch this space.'

Then, after a tour round the Exhibition stands it was back up the Croisette for the Brandon Lewis and Rio Ferdinand Legacy project launch. We duly took up our positions at the CBRE apartment with a crowd of other guests and waited. It was CBRE 'secret weapon' Reg who saved the day. He pointed out that we were at the Spanish party and should be in the upstairs apartment with Aviva. Thank you Reg as we nearly missed all the fun!  Rio Ferdinand presented Legacy, a business model designed to provide affordable housing. Hopefully private sector developers and local authorities will be able to get behind it. It was great to hear about an initiative promoted by sporting legends such as Rio Ferdinand and I was delighted to have my pic taken with him at MIPIM.

It's a small world in real estate! At the elegant Topland buffet lunch in the Sharon Stone suite atop the Carlton Hotel you can see the whole sweep of the Cannes coastline. Here alongside other guests, I met one of my neighbours for the first time.

Harvey Soning's Thursday night party in partnership with Coutts, for many years a MIPIM institution, seemed to be busier than ever. So much so that I couldn't get within striking distance of the legendary smoked salmon. It was an interesting opportunity to catch up in real life with an increasing band of Twitter acquaintances and, as a completely new departure, with people who have met my new portrait! I have yet to make its acquaintance in person but it seems to be pretty good at networking.

Dinner was back at my favourite Cannes restaurant, Petite Maison. Our informally assembled  table included Ross Bailey and Tom Bloxham who I had just name checked in my Estates Gazette piece on networking and collaboration, along with The Collective's Reza Merchant, BPF CEO Melanie Leech and BNP Paribas's James Max (who somehow also finds time for his live radio show between 2am and 6am on Saturday morning). We worked out that if Ross got in early from partying he would be just in time to phone in before 6am. It was a great combination of guests and hugely entertaining. Apologies to the gathering, for ordering for them, especially as they were looking forward to ordering a la carte after a week of feasting on set menus! It was a great warm up for a birthday party at Bâoli. The club was heaving and it seemed the whole of MIPIM's 88 national delegations were there so a great bonding experience. Then finally a trek along the jetty for a visit to The Boat that Rocks for some live music and dancing.

Was it a good MIPIM? I would say, one of the best. There is clearly a lot of uncertainty around Brexit, the London Mayoral election and then with some unexpected Budget announcements thrown in. But overall it was interesting few days with useful time spent with clients and some unscheduled exciting new contacts to explore. We launched our 2016 Collaborators, an initiative with Estates Gazette.

Just a final sartorial word in dispatches. Last year we remarked on the tide of grey suits and started a Twitter campaign to encourage more colour. This year, a few splashes of colour noted. Essential Living's Darryl Flay and Mansford's Charles Knight were  elegant in royal blue. Roger Southam as usual stood out in bright purple and green suits. I have to mention London Chamber CEO Colin Stanbridge for his striking red socks and of course designer Steve Edge for his much coveted sequinned silver jacket. Also Tower Hamlets' Ken Clark for his sequinned green tie to mark St Patrick's Day. Of course a spate of St Patricks Day celebrations caused green hats to mushroom all round Cannes, which the locals seemed to find mystifying. I'm sure there are many others so let me know who I have missed. Finally, a vibrant splash of floral colour from the excellent Carlton Hotel.

I can’t think many property events give such access to top politicians, property industry titans and local authorities together in one place. On Day 2 of the show, I was talking to Housing and Planning Minister Brandon Lewis MP over lunch about Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) with the inimitable Jackie Sadek who was escorting the Minister. We were able to point out to the Minister that, some 15 years ago, we were both part of Pat Brown’s (number 20 in The Collaborators Top 50 List!) Study Group to New York that proved to be the catalyst for the introduction of BIDs to the UK.

Following this exchange, I ran into London Deputy Mayor Sir Eddie Lister who was bemoaning our construction methods, which compare unfavourably with other parts of the world where modular and off site construction speed up the delivery process. In between these encounters, there were many interesting and informative panel sessions with property legends such as  Derwent’s John Burns and Helical’s Mike Slade. They were such an entertaining double act that I suggested a two man TV show. ‘The Two Ronnies?’ shot back Burns immediately.

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Collaboration must evolve to rid sector of 'exclusive reputation'

MIPIM UK 2015: Collaboration in property should not always be partnerships “between friends” if the sector is to shake its exclusive reputation.

Ross Bailey, founder of pop-up retail start up Appear Here said that the industry needs to be careful it does not only join forces internally at this morning’s session Collaboration as a catalyst for investment.

“It can’t just be about existing friendships,” he said. “The worrying thing about the property industry is that it can be very closed to those outside.

To view the full article, please click here.

Interview: Dr Pippa Malmgren

Former White House advisor Dr Pippa Malmgren, who stars in our pre MIPIM party film (see below), met Estates Gazette Features & Global Editor, Emily Wright at the party which resulted in this fascinating Estates Gazette interview entitled 'Can you be a sexy woman and work in the White House?'

Please click here to view the article.

Mishcon de Reya's Annual MIPIM Dinner at Petite Maison

Once again a great evening was had by all at the annual Mishcon MIPIM client dinner at Petite Maison. Please click here for a selection of photos.

Susan Freeman at MIPIM 2015: A Networking Whirlwind

Widely known as one of real estate's best networkers, there is no worthwhile event at MIPIM that Mishcon de Reya partner Susan Freeman does not know about. This year, reporting for Estates Gazette, she made sure readers knew all about them too. For an abridged version of Susan's MIPIM blogs please see P.21 of Estates Gazette MIPIM Review 2015 'A Networking Whirlwind.'

To view the full Estates Gazette MIPIM Review, please click here.

Read Susan's blog, here.

MIPIM Day One: This promises to be a vintage MIPIM. UK delegate numbers are up 20% on last year, I was reliably informed by FTI’s Sue Brown on the packed flight out of Heathrow this morning. Interestingly, Sue also reports that MIPIM UK has generated additional interest from people who haven’t previously attended MIPIM Cannes. And, as a bonus, the weather promises to be reasonably sunny and warm, which is more than can be said for previous years where cold and monsoon-like rain has put a dampener on proceedings.

It’s good to be back at the Carlton where allegedly improved WiFi in the rooms may mean I don’t have to go down to the bar in the early hours to file my blog! A particular thank you to Reed-MIDEM, managing director Peter Rhodes for the beautiful flowers. This will be Peter’s last MIPIM so it’s very much the end of an era. He has been and integral part of building MIPIM from its small beginnings 26 years ago to the successful international trade fair it is now and I have enjoyed plotting with him along the way!

Nobody could have been more tenacious in protecting the interests of the organisers. Who can forget the phone call from Mr Rhodes following the SFO dawn raid on the Tchenguizes on the first day of MIPIM in 2011, suggesting that they should be registering for MIPIM if they were planning a party in Cannes, as reported by the news channels. Peter we will miss you.

So what’s new in Cannes? For one thing, Le Festival restaurant, is no more. Its great corner position on the Croisette gave it the best vantage point for MIPIM people watching and its popularity with locals and visitors alike made it a Cannes institution. It and Le Comptoir restaurant next door have been obliterated to make way for a new Hermès store. As much as I love shopping, if these restaurants and cafés are allowed to close, where, apart from the hotels, can we rendezvous for coffee? Perhaps it’s part of the greater Reed- MIDEM plan to encourage us all back into the Palais?

I arrived straight from the airport with just time to drop my bags at the hotel before joining the end of lunch with McAlpine’s Robert Neill at the Armani café, seemingly one of the few remaining Croisette cafe/restaurant establishments.  Then on to a meeting with Pat Brown, my co-collaborator in the Big Think on the Future of London series of linked debates. After the success of our dinner debates at the Labour and Conservative party conferences and at MIPIM UK, we are looking for sponsorship for the next series. High on our agenda is the profile of the property sector and how best to promote the positive contribution that developers make in so many ways, including placemaking.

Then on to a great MIPIM warm-up dinner with Harvey Soning, Coutts’s Barry Williamson and Liz Peace at Maschou in the old town. This is another real Cannes institution, which has been serving fantastic food for over 50 years. Then back to the Carlton for drinks with Anthony Tokatly and Tony Lorenz (star of the recent TV show on Mayfair.) Where was Sebastian, his parrot  co-star, I asked. “He’ll be flying in later” said Tony, without missing a beat. There was much talk  of the inaugural MIPIM tennis match on Wednesday morning to raise money for Land Aid. Some £25,000 has already been raised so come along on Wednesday morning to support this worthy  cause.

Finally, time to unpack my case before turning in. I feel I may have overdone the shoes this year… I counted 11 pairs, including two pairs of boots, on the basis that you can’t have too many shoes. Hopefully some of them will prove up to the task of marching up and down the Croisette. Next year, it’s roller skates.

MIPIM Day Two Tuesday didn’t start well. A “goat rodeo”, as my twitter acquaintance Guy Grainger said MIPIM had been described to him. An American expression, akin to “herding cats” I imagine.

Anyway, the breakfast I had planned at the Carlton was apparently moved to the Majestic so I had breakfast toute seule while grappling with the Carlton’s “upgraded” WiFi so I could file my blog and send emails.

In fact, the WiFi here seems to be beset with problems generally in the hotels and on the London stand. Perhaps next year arrangements could be made to boost connectivity for the main trade show for this, the most connected of industries so that we can get word to the outside world of the exciting events unfolding at MIPIM. It’s not quite the World Economic Forum at Davos but a twitter leaderboard should not be out of the question.

I have noted particularly this year that delegates are so intent on scanning their iPhones to catch the latest email or tweet that I have narrowly avoided a number of near collisions on the Croisette. Apart from the collision risk there is a danger of missing out on real networking opportunities while focusing on the virtual.

The London stand was busy with numerous panel presentations, as speakers struggled to make themselves heard above the excited cacophony of conversation. There was the unveiling of the amazing new London model. Much bigger and better than last year, although, as Sir Eddie Lister pointed out, there are still a few blank spaces to be completed by developers. A senior figure, who asked to remain nameless, quipped that the bright red ribbon down its centre must be the third runway. London deputy mayor Ric Blakeway later suggested that the ribbon must be Crossrail 3. “Things are looking pretty good”, he pronounced.

Industry veteran Peter Bill, in summing up at the Levy and Westminster Property Association lunch, outlined his take on the threats and opportunities for London – among the former, AirBnB, competition from Berlin and Frankfurt, and he warned darkly of “complacency”. “It feels like 2006,” he warned, so don’t let complacency set in. Top of his list of opportunities? Old people, as they have loads of money to spend.

The opening night party at the Carlton was an odd affair. When I left the hotel there seemed to be more people queuing disconsolately outside to come in and being barred entry than there were inside. Usually the whole hotel is thronged with seemingly thousands of MIPIM delegates. Clearly there was a new system this year, but I have no idea how it works.

Tonight was also the annual Mishcon de Reya MIPIM dinner at another Cannes institution, Petite Maison. Fortunately, my photographer of choice Tom Campbell was on hand to capture some of the high spirits. The room was the usual riotous gathering of real estate’s great and good. British Land’s Chris Grigg rubbed shoulders with Nick Candy. The place was heaving, the food fantastic, but sadly in the end we couldn’t do justice to the tiramisu.

On the walk back, Deirdre Foley and I made the mistake of stopping on a corner to catch up on the day’s events. We realised pretty quickly from the appraising looks we were getting from passing punters, that for ladies at MIPIM, standing on street corners is not a good networking ploy.

Apologies to the gentleman who invited me for a drink… And on the subject of women’s networking, for the first time at MIPIM, I was invited to a number of women’s networking events. I’m not sure about this new departure, but would welcome comments from others.

Despite what you may have heard about warm sunny weather it’s freezing as soon as the sun goes in. Even the local pooches are wearing overcoats (see picture, left, of a well-dressed local canine). And for the benefit of @Rupertthedog_ I’m pleased to report that dogs are still welcome at the Carlton breakfast buffet.

I now feel vindicated in bringing 11 pairs of footwear (see yesterday’s blog) as the cobbles have already done for the heels on one pair of boots.

Wednesday was always going to be a marathon. I achieved my goal of getting to two breakfasts, two lunches, various dinners and parties and lived to tell the tale. I reckon some of you must be reading this if all the “street corner” comments are anything to go by (see yesterday’s blog), so I will continue.

First up was the British Property Federation investment breakfast, a very busy event at which there was standing room only. GVA’s Rob Bould alerted us to the fact that MIPIM is known as the “undertakers’ conference” because there are so many grey suits (there’s a selection of them, pictured right). Can we please dispel this notion by wearing something colourful? Then the equally packed Movers & Shakers and JLL MIPIM breakfast on UK city leadership. The excellent panel trumped all others by including three Knights of the Realm: Sir Eddie Lister, Sir Howard Bernstein and Sir Mike Bear. I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before the fourth panellist, Birmingham CEO Mark Rogers gets his gong.

Sir Eddie made a compelling argument for London to have access to its own tax income. Crossrail 2 will cost £28bn, of which the government will only fund part. There is no point looking for Chinese investment, he said, unless there is an income stream to pay it back. A question was raised on “reshoring” – bringing business back to the UK – and, for me, a new expression, “northshoring” which means putting back offices into cheaper locations.

The next hour was spent navigating the back streets of Cannes to locate the local “cordonnier” to mend my broken boot. This involved a negotiation to retrieve the boot before evening. The local shops still manage to close for a couple of hours over lunch – a practice which seems so quaint to a Londoner. I missed the LandAid tennis tournament so I am unclear who won, but a medal should go to Darryl Flay, James Moody, John Slade and Richard Fagg for competing. John Slade must have been the winner in the sartorial stakes judging by the pic I took as he left the Carlton.

Lunch started with the Europa Capital buffet lunch on the beach. Perfect for relaxed conversation and great to catch up with my host Erik Ruane. Then back along the beach for the Savills beach lunch courtesy of Ned Bowers, Michael Sharpe-Neal and Luke Hawkesbury who hosted a Who’s Who of the residential property world. Before I knew it, it was 3pm and time to reclaim the boot for a quick dash back to the Palais for Pat Brown’s London stand panel “Where next for BIDS?” A fascinating debate ensued between the panel of Business Improvement District (BID) experts with women outnumbering the men by two to one, for a change.

After excellent drinks receptions with Capco and London Chamber of Commerce, dinner was with Robert Davis (that’s me and him, right) and the New West End Company, the UK’s largest retail BID, representing 600 businesses in the retail heartland of London’s West End including Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street. They, along with Heart of London BID, have ballots this year to include property owners for the first time. It is essential that these succeed to bring us into line with the US remodel and ensure property owners are obliged to contribute.

If you are an affected property owner make sure you vote in favour in the upcoming ballot so that your BID can be even more effective. As it does, conversation turned to the recently published Estates Gazette Power List 2015. This must have been the first property power list in years that didn’t include former BPF chief Liz Peace. An interesting and surprising omission though was Crown Estate supremo, Alison Nimmo bearing in mind the Crown’s substantial landowning, particularly in London’s west end.

The night continued with some great parties courtesy of Legal & General, Tristan Capital and AEW. Those that still had the stamina (and/or flat shoes) danced the night away in style. At Tristan Capital I was reunited with my long-standing MIPIM pal Tom Bloxham, who was still wearing the hat and also some fetching Birkenstock sandals. The very elegant Russian ladies we met assumed he had problems with his feet which necessitated remedial footwear! It was also good to run into Pradera’s Neil Varnham although he does insist on saying I am the person in real estate he has known longest.

The music from the parties was still going strong when I turned in at 2am. “A normal MIPIM” as Peter Bill has christened it continues.

MIPIM Day Four: Apparently the Tristan Capital bash continued unabated until 4am this morning. Hats off to those who made it until the end and were still up for early morning meetings!

The ‘Undertakers’ Convention’ slur seems to have caused quite a stir, and there was the very occasional splash of colour glimpsed on the Croisette. I want to mention in dispatches Mansford’s Charles Knight, who was looking immaculate in a blue suit for a breakfast meeting this morning with my almost equally elegant colleagues, Nick Doffman and Daniel Lipman.

Meetings were at the Carlton this morning so I didn’t even see the sun except during a quick circuit of the driveway before lunch. The Topland buffet lunch was held in the discreet elegance of the Carlton’s Sharon Stone Suite, which certainly lives up to its glamorous name. High up on the seventh floor, its balcony overlooks the sweep of the Cannes beaches and beyond. It was good to catch up with the Zakays and the Topland team, who have been Mishcon clients for over twenty years. Their businesses continue to expand and their hotel business, whose jewel in the crown is the Royal Crescent Hotel, Bath, makes them the second-largest private hotel owners in the UK.

Then a quick canter down to the Majestic for the MIPIM UK tea party. With his customary attention to detail, Reed-MIDEM UK managing director Peter Rhodes had been busying himself instructing the French waiting staff on how to make a proper English cup of tea. Who will fulfil this role for future MIPIMs? Estates Gazette editor Damian Wild concluded his introduction with the hope that we will have only one general election in 2015. You can say that again! Reed-MIDEM’s Julien Sausset described having to speak after Damian as being a “punishment” as he is “not so comfortable” with public speaking (he speaks very well especially as English is not his first language). He talked about the exciting plans for the second MIPIM UK in London in October, which he says will have more of a London focus than last year’s inaugural event. The auditoriums will be extended to provide better capacity for the excellent panels and presentations which were a great feature of the conference. It remains to be seen whether Boris will join us again and, depending on the outcome of the election, whether the prime minister will grace us with his presence!

With tea hardly over it was time for the James Andrew International and Coutts & Co party. It was busier than ever – hardly surprising as it’s such a well-attended event and the only MIPIM party at which you are served smoked salmon specially flown in from London.

According to David Pearl (who nobody could accuse of dressing like an undertaker!) the two nicest men in property are Harvey Soning and Ian Marcus. I second that wholeheartedly, although, I would like Ian even more if he didn’t arrange his Prince’s Trust regeneration dinner on the very same night as the Mishcon pre-MIPIM party. Next year we will liaise on dates! Ian had time as we met fleetingly on my usual corner on the Croisette, to refer to Michael Grade’s joke about Non Executive Directors. “They are like bidets,” he said. “You aren’t sure what they are for but they add class!” I’m not sure if Liz Peace and other friends considering ‘going plural’ would agree with that assessment.

Then it was a relaxed evening serenaded by the Gypsy Queens at Petite Maison, again. The dinner was co-hosted with my longstanding MIPIM and MAPIC co-collaborator Clare Hartnell, formerly at Grant Thornton and now at FTI. After dinner, down to the ‘Boat That Rocks’ party courtesy of Citygrove and Doherty Baines. The boat certainly rocked with music from a live band and intrepid MIPIM goers partied the night away.

Despite the seemingly endless round of parties and meetings, team Mishcon also managed to close a number of deals during the week including acting for another longstanding client, the Dellal family, on the purchase of the West End headquarters of BHS.

As MIPIM draws to a close, a few random observations. It has been interesting to get to know some the new generation of property players and disruptors, such as Ross Bailey, Charles Curtis and Yonni Abramson and all the others who will be playing more of a role at future MIPIMs. And top of my wish list for next year? Let’s have better WiFi , a Twitter leaderboard and a new set of steps to give a more stylish entry point to the London Stand.