Mipim 2024 Day 3: blog by Susan Freeman

The event was hosted on 3.14’s roof top 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 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 time frame. They need collaboration with the planners’.

Sadly I had to leave without hearing the response from the ladder 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 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 be driving 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.

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 cohosted 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.

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 Poznan 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. I caught up briefly with our indefatigable It occurred to me that whilst in the last couple of years the proptech sector has been prominent at Mipim, aim 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.

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