Propertyshe Perspectives: New Fifth Wall and BNP Paribas proptech start-up fund, commercial drones, building back London with Jenga, Mishcon epic 25th Anniversary cake and MIPIM moves

With the acceleration of the adoption of tech solutions brought about by the pandemic, this is well timed, so watch this space. As Fifth Wall MD Roelof Opperman commented, ‘We believe the European proptech market is underpenetrated and has significant room to grow.’

The commercial use of drones and other flying vehicles is a particular interest of mine and something that I touched upon in my very first podcast which happened to be with Fifth Wall co-founder Brendan Wallace, and also in my podcast with economist and award-winning author Dr Pippa Malmgren whose company H Robotics manufactures drones. So a recent Bloomberg piece reporting that Hyundai Motor Group, South Korea’s biggest automaker, is stepping up its pursuit of flying cars caught my eye.

Apparently they are planning a full range of aerial vehicles that they envisage populating city skies in the next ten years. They are even working on five or six person models and a larger version to fly between cities, They commented, ‘People who are always stuck in traffic on the road will realize how convenient it is to move via aerial vehicles,’ ‘That is when we will see demand explode.’ Dror Poleg author of ‘Rethinking Real Estate’ responded on twitter, ‘Autonomy will come into its own in the sky.

It’s just so much easier up there’. Since we could be heading to vehicle saturation on our central London roads, how are we doing in terms of the regulation of air rights to allow for increased demand on our air space?

Following on from our digital Labour Party Conference debate we hosted our Conservative Party Conference event this week with London Communications Agency. Once again we had a great guest list made up of politicians, property companies and thought leaders to debate London’s recovery in a post COVID world and as always the conversation was entirely different from that at the Labour event.

If I get a minute, I will try to write an overview of what was said. For the moment, I will simply mention the suggestion from Patricia Brown of Central that, as London recovers from COVID, we need to build back its layers much like a giant game of Jenga, the block stacking game, in order to create a self-sustaining economy. She sees this an opportunity to create a new vision for London and capture to the many positives and reduce the negatives. I for one look forward to participating in the rebuilding exercise. And as we said at the end of the debate, next year in Manchester!

After a year away, those of us who are regular party conference goers, are craving the discomfort of the dodgy hotels, indifferent food and warm wine and political intrigue that mark the party conference season.

I was also delighted to host the second in our Mishcon Academy digital real estate series, this time focusing on the future of offices. Our stellar panel, selected for being advocates for change and progress in the office sector, included Charlie Green: Joint Founder and Co-CEO, The Office Group, Richard Howard: Head of London Leasing, Cushman & Wakefield, Ronen Journo: SVP, Enterprise & Workplace, WeWork and Emily Prideaux: Director of Leasing, Derwent London. We had a spirited and engaging conversation on the future of the office sector and the exciting changes that we are likely to see. The consensus was that we are still early on in the journey so with the current speed of change we will need to reassemble in six months to see how things are progressing.

We talked about the opportunities and challenges facing the office market, including investor and occupier trends, changing uses and demands, and the impact of issues such as sustainability, health and wellness, and technology. It was clear from our session that the office is by no means dead but that corporates are likely to review its purpose, focus and function. Working practices had started to change pre COVID but the pandemic, and the enforced home working experiment has served to accelerate that change. Look out for the 15 minute highlights film coming shortly.

The timing of Chris Kane’s soon to be published new book Where Is My Office: Reimagining the Workplace for the 21^st Century really couldn’t have been better. His extensive experience as head of workplace at the BBC and before that as head of international corporate real estate for the Walt Disney Company makes this recommended reading.

The book quotes former US President John F Kennedy, ‘Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future’. As Kane commented, ‘There is an over-emphasis on the physical ‘workplace’ viewing it purely as a fixed destination where work is carried out. Alternative working practices can produce meaningful outcomes and measurable impact - irrespective of the physical space where people are working. The office is not dead but it is not going back to normal it will be more of a new reality’.

We are getting used to the fact that life in the time of COVID involves a lot of mask wearing. However the recent edict from the Governor of California’s office urging diners to wear masks “in between bites” when they went out to eat seemed to be a little excessive. But at least smart masks are starting to come through so perhaps there will be a mask you can eat through. In the meantime, the World Economic Forum brings news that a Japanese company has invented a mask that translates into eight languages. The smart mask displays your speech as text on a phone via a microphone in the mask which connects to a phone app.

Incredibly, today is the 25^th anniversary of my starting at Mishcon. I know this because the most amazing cake arrived at home. And it’s not just any cake, it’s more a work of art. The many highlights depicted include twitter star Rupert the dog, annual pilgrimages to MIPIM, New Forest ponies, my podcast and a brilliant Kodak moment with the Bishop of London at a cocktail party.

The cake has attracted almost as much attention on twitter as my tweet about camouflaging wheelie bins! The problem is that it is so exquisite, I can’t possibly eat it. In normal circumstances this occasion would be celebrated with a party in the office but we are going to have to defer this for the moment. Please do get in touch if you would like details of the talented creator.

A huge thank you to my lovely @Mishcon_de_Reya partners for this extraordinary personalised work of art to mark 25 years at the firm! Delighted to see @RupertTheDog_ @MIPIMWorld the #NewForest, @Propertyshe @CHANEL nail varnish and perfume featured. Anyone want some cake? pic.twitter.com/ai7zbV4160

— Susan Freeman (@Propertyshe) October 8, 2020

Clearly absolutely nothing is sacred at the moment. News is out that, due to ongoing travel restrictions and quarantine regulations, MIPIM 2021 in Cannes will be moving from its time honoured March slot to the 7^th to 10^th June. We will be slotting in after MIDEM, the music business trade show so there may still be some colourful creative types in town. Looking on the positive side, the weather should be more reliable than it has been for the last few years and we can leave the raincoats and umbrellas at home.

Susan Freeman is a partner at Mishcon de Reya