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Noting a decline in the number of yachts parties, pundits described this year’s MIPIM conference in Cannes as a “muted affair” and “losing its fizz.” Attendance was about 18,000, according to event organizers, about the same as 2009 but a steep drop from the 29,000 that swarmed the croisette in 2008.
Nevertheless, MIPIM remains the premier European gathering for the commercial property industry, the one event sure to attract all the top players.
Some of the highlights out of Cannes this year:
- Taking an optimistic view of the market, consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle said the number of transactions in Europe could rise by 30 percent in 2010, as long a credit markets “thaw” and prices stabilize. Although comparisons to the black hole of early 2009 seem irrelevant, JLL said €24.6 billion of deals closed in the last quarter of 2009, more than twice the volume of the first part of the year.
- After skipping last year’s show, there was a strong contingent of developers attending from Dubai, including Emaar Properties, Dubai Pearl, Jumeirah Group and Mubadala Development, the National reports. The China Investment Corporation, a sovereign wealth fund, also made its first appearance in MIPIM.
- Although Poland was this year’s spotlight market, central and Eastern Europe took a pounding from speakers. “There were some of us who believed that Eastern Europe was the second best place in the world, in terms of growth, next to Asia,” said Barbara Knoflach, chief executive of SEB Asset Management, in one session. “That was a big mistake. I don't think anyone thinks that now."
- The best quote came from the London Times: “But to some it has become a ghastly ordeal of pointless gladhanding with ‘people you have never heard of, from companies you never work with in countries you don't want to invest in,’ as one former attendee put it.”
- Second best quote: “It's like a singles club. Everyone knows why they are there so they get on with it,” Peter Rhodes, managing director of Reed Midem UK told the Telegraph.
- Banks are facing more than €200 billion of bad debt lent against poor quality property in Europe, according to CBRE. Of the outstanding debt at the end of the 2009, 34 percent was in the U.K. and 24 percent was based in Germany. "Rising values are less likely to rescue loans secured against secondary properties and the majority of this pool will struggle to see significant capital appreciation in the near or even medium term,” said Iryna Pylypchuk, associate director of EMEA Research.
