We are back in Leeds for UKREiiF 2026. Once again hotel rooms are in short supply, so I am grateful that the Mishcon team managed to secure some at the Queen’s Hotel, just a stone’s throw from the station and manageable even with my heavy suitcase.

The facade of the hotel has finally emerged after being obscured by whatever construction works have been ongoing around the station since I first started coming to this conference. Check-in went smoothly once I realised that I was queuing for registration for the conference, rather than the hotel check-in.

There was just time for a quick reconnoitre of the local retail on offer around the Trinity Centre and the charmingly diminutive Harvey Nichols at Briggate. Despite the heavy rain forecast, Monday was dry and sunny.

Back at the hotel I ran into Rachel Miller from student accommodation provider UPP. She was between events so we had time for a catch-up over coffee. Aside from the day job, Rachel is a talented artist and it was great to see some of her recent work. I have huge admiration for the way she combines a demanding role with bringing up children and finding the time to be creative.

Next stop was the Property Week opening drinks reception at the historic Old Cloth Hall. As usual, it was a great turnout. I was delighted to hear that Martin Bellinger has upsized his caravan, which is parked somewhere outside Leeds for the duration of the conference. Follow him on LinkedIn for further updates from the campsite. It was good to catch up with fellow Inspiring Women in Property judge Jenny Taylor-Smith, national head of planning at Asda, and to meet Aleksandra Atman, who told me how she and Jenny had first worked together at Drivers Jonas many years ago.

Then, it should have been a 10-minute walk to dinner at Dakota with Property Week’s Richard Watts and Mark Collins. As we were late, and it was a 10-minute walk, I suggested we take an Uber to get us there quicker – a huge mistake as apparently you can’t drive through central Leeds before 10pm. The driver did a huge circuit involving a 20-minute drive, bringing us back virtually to our starting point. My advice is to check on journey time before opting to drive. We got there eventually for an enjoyable dinner and finished the evening with the obligatory photo with Fetcher the dog.

True to the weather forecast, Tuesday morning dawned overcast and raining. The best method of travel to UKREiiF at the Royal Armouries is the canal boat taxi. That journey always lifts my mood although the outside seats were a bit soggy in the rain.

On arrival, I ran into Landsec’s Martyn Evans, although, to tell the truth, I almost walked past him as, unusually for him, he was very formally dressed in a suit and tie. He explained that his normal uniform of a brightly coloured jumper no longer stood out, whereas he was the only person in the office (and probably the only man in Leeds) dressed so formally. I was not looking quite so dapper as my woolly bobble hat is essential protection against the hair frizzing elements.

My first meeting was with Will Pearce, co-founder of artificial intelligence (AI) company Orbital, ahead of our panel on Wednesday (12.30 in the newsroom on the fourth floor of the Armouries). We will be looking at AI as the new occupier and its effect on real estate. Data centres will be a central part of the discussion. It is therefore ironic that there seemed to be a problem getting any internet connection both in the Armouries and at Pizza Express, which made communication with colleagues and clients impossible. Hopefully the issue will be resolved by Wednesday.

I was delighted to run into Jackie Sadek who I first met 26 years ago on Pat Brown’s famous study tour to New York, which was instrumental in business improvement districts (BIDs) being introduced to the UK. We compared notes on 26 years of BIDs.

It was then on to the Hilltop lunch hosted by Michela Hancock at Avison Young’s HQ to celebrate the first anniversary of the launch of  Hilltop Properties, which aims to promote less amenitised build to rent (BTR) to service the mid-market. It wants to scale to address the gap in market and is looking to JV with housebuilders.

I was pleased to meet Damon Brown of Reds10, a modular producer that, he told me, works with the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Justice to build modular prisons, military accommodation and schools in their Yorkshire factory. It is good to know that despite the spate of closures, some modular construction is thriving.

It was also good to catch up with George Roberts, less than two days into his new role as president UK and Ireland at Avison Young.

I then spent a couple of hours in Pizza Express sheltering from some extremely heavy rain. The team there, led by Melinda, did an amazing job of coping with hordes of hungry wet delegates and service, even extended to charging iPhones that had run out of battery.

It was then on to Trinity Kitchen for the Landsec, Core Cities and Leeds City Council drinks reception followed by the very elegant champagne reception at The Met Hotel hosted by DJB and Real Estate Balance. That left approximately 15 minutes for a very quick change ready for our Mishcon annual UKREiiF client dinner at Tattu, hosted with my colleagues Daniel Lipman, Nick Minkoff, Anita Rivera and Justine Ayto. We had some great food, wine and conversation and thank you Tattu for the delicious complimentary champagne.

Here’s hoping for some drier weather going forward.

My day two started early as I was keen to secure a ringside seat for one of the best sessions of UKREiiF, the annual ‘The rest is politics live’ panel with Rory Stewart and Alistair Campbell, hosted by Related Argent.

It appears that Rory Stewart had a better offer this year, but this didn’t detract from what was a really entertaining event featuring Related Argent chief executive Tom Goodall, Tracy Brabin, West Yorkshire Combined Authority mayor, and Anna Leach, chief economist of the Institute of Directors.

Campbell is such a professional and handles the audience and his panel with aplomb. He began the session with an audience poll on whether people want a change in the leadership of the Labour Party. From the audience reaction, it seems a change is not wanted as business craves stability. Tom made the point that rather than stability, volatility is the new normal, so we have to focus on creating micro level stability. Aside from the disruption caused by the recent local elections, it seems there is generally more stability in local government than at national level at the moment.

Turning to the barriers to housing development, Tom commented that planning is too expensive and takes too long. He also said changes are needed to the Building Safety Regulations, which are not fit for purpose, quoting stats showing that the second staircase requirements will only save one life in (I think he said) 6,163 years, but holds up thousands of new homes that could themselves save lives. The government needs to take this on, he said.

NLA chief executive Nick McKeogh raised a great audience question. He said he had been prompted by Rory Stewart’s comments at last year’s panel to commission a report on the size and extent of the built environment, which showed it to be a massive 25% of the UK economy. He called for the government to designate the built environment as a priority growth sector. This was well received by Campbell, who described it as a good idea, combining campaign and policy, which “could be a runner”. This must have been music to Nick’s ears! Anna Leach suggested that it could be wrapped in with infrastructure strategy.

We finished with another searching question, this time from Debra Yudolph, founder and chief executive of SAY. Debra asked how we get quality people into politics who can actually answer questions. Campbell said one of the deterrents was the abuse politicians get, especially women.

For something completely different I sat in on an intriguing session called ‘Marketing is a form of innovation’ with marketing luminary Rory Sutherland, vice chairman of Ogilvy UK. He highlighted some great marketing success stories such as Uber, which made waiting for a car an informed and regularly updated experience.

He explained that marketing has been largely ignored in business schools and pointed to the shortage of innovation in housing. He suggested we should be more overt about the negatives. Sellers tend to list only the positives when they would apparently do better to list the negatives. Good luck with that! He also highlighted the perils of corporate isomorphism and said developers should differentiate more, rather than making all housing the same.

He finished with a mention for one of my favourite and recently discovered books, Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara, the gist of which is that anyone in the service industry should give people more than they expect.

The presentation finished somewhat abruptly as secretary of state for housing Steve Reed was ready to take to the stage together with Pat Ritchie, chair of Homes England. The theatre was packed to capacity for this session, with people even sitting on the floor.

Ritchie reported that Homes England delivered 40,000 homes last year. Reed referenced the pent-up demand for social housing and that “events overseas” may call for further support for housing. He recognised that there was a huge agenda to deliver and we need to integrate public services locally. But there were no policy announcements. There was reference to the new £16bn National Housing Bank as a game changer that will crowd in much more funding.

Reed’s reply to an audience question on when the National Planning Policy Framework would be finalised was “shortly”, but he said he did understand the urgency. Another audience member asked whether the impact on SME builders is understood by government. Reed recognised the need for more support, which promoted enthusiastic clapping from the audience. Let’s hope that Reed is still in post come next year’s UKREiiF.

I was delighted to chair a panel for AI real estate company Orbital on the effect of AI on real estate. My excellent panelists were Orbital co-founder and chief executive Will Pearce, Barry Gross, partner at law firm Simmons & Simmons, and Chris Rae, co-head of real estate at CMS Law. We had a fascinating discussion about the challenges and opportunities for data centre development and a look into the future. This sector is moving at such speed and is being held back by planning, grid capacity and the lack of an overarching plan.

I was pleased to run into Greenwich Council leader Anthony Okereke, who was positive about UKREiiF as an event that enables him to generate investment in his borough. Our encounter was shortly before he attended the much-talked-about dinner hosted by communications agency LCA, which assembled many of the new council leaders, bringing together politicians from the different parties, which is always a risky business. The assembled guests included the new Mayor of Lewisham, Liam Shrivastava, from the Green Party; apparently the political differences made for some heated debate.

Elsewhere in Leeds, leading sustainable retrofit developer MORE caused quite a stir with their vintage red Mini which it drove up to conference. It was chosen for being exactly the same age as the building at 1 Poultry which MORE is reftrofitting and although the car is not a heritage building, it was chosen as a well-designed product that deserves a future.

It was good to catch up with James Saunders, just a few weeks into his new position as chief executive at Battersea Power Station. It sounds like an exciting role that will enable him to use his exceptional skills in placemaking that were apparent at Wembley Park when he was chief executive of its developer, Quintain.

My final event was the Mishcon de Reya UKREiiF drinks party, which attracted quite a crowd and despite starting at 6pm, continued into the early hours of the morning, fuelled by some exemplary Aperol spritzes and espresso martinis, along with some mouthwatering Indian snacks

So, some final thoughts on UKREiiF 2026. It is clearly a success story, with the numbers growing every year. I don’t know the delegate numbers, but people were guessing 16,000-plus. With the number of Leeds hotel rooms estimated around 4 ,000 to 5,000, Leeds infrastructure is having difficulty coping.

The event attracted not only ministers Steve Reed and Matthew Pennycook, but also chancellor Rachel Reeves – even if she only announced bus passes for children. This is important, as I don’t think we had any ministerial presence at Mipim this year. Local and regional government was also there in force, which is important, particularly for the development sector. Many of the panels discussed the progress of AI and technology, so it was ironic that we struggled to get an internet connection. Hopefully the issues will be sorted out for next year. If not, let me know, as I did find a work around. See you all next year and thank you for reading.