MIPIM Day 3 - From One Superlative To Another

In the several years I've been coming here, there's no question that yesterday was my best ever at MIPIM. Every client conversation delivered a tangible outcome, and some very positive agreements and opportunities. So, a lot of momentum for the rest of the week, and a really decent list of actions to follow-up on. Excellent. The superlative of yesterday has been pretty much matched so far today, but for totally different reasons. I don't think I've ever had such a wide-ranging and seemingly random series of discussions! If MIPIM should come with a list of health warnings, the prospect of this happening should certainly be one of them. I've been engaged in conversation on topics from the panacea of thorium to our energy supply challenges, the commercial opportunities and pitfalls for those prepared to develop mobile Apps, the dynamics of the European M&A market, and the prospects and limitations of crowd funding real estate investment. Try making sense of that lot!

One theme of conversation which merits some decent reflection though, was that hosted by the wonderful Jane Hollinshead (@JHollinsheadAG) at Addleshaw Goddard, in association with the British Property Federation (@BritProp). It focused on international capital investment trends into the UK property market, and featured representatives from a significant Chinese firm that has invested into a large real estate project outside of London. This can be taken as pretty serious validation of overseas investment interest in the UK market as a whole, where regional opportunities are considered increasingly to provide decent prospects for sustainable returns. Importantly, this particular investor has every intention of broadcasting its experience of doing business in the UK with other Chinese firms. It is critical, in my view, that organisations such as the Regeneration Investment Organisation, set up to attract overseas capital to UK real estate and infrastructure investment opportunities, harness the ambassadorial qualities of the international investors already doing business in the UK, especially those from the emerging markets. Now here's something that gives me great pleasure to report: whilst obvious assets like the British education system are central to competing to attract investor interest from places like China, so too, it seems, is the professionalism of the advisors and firms who operate in the domestic real estate market. This remark was a big thumbs up for the professional...