Property professionals visiting the south of France this week for the annual MIPIM conference will find Gulf developers represented in greater numbers than last year, when the industry was reeling from the collapse in house prices.

The sharp decline in building activity in the Emirates has prompted a rising number of local developers to attend the annual property exposition in Cannes, despite a significant decline in overall international attendance.

“I think the reality is that the market here is pretty slow in terms of capital raising. The banks are obviously not lending in a significant way,” said Andrew Charlesworth, the head of capital markets for the regional office of the property consultancy Jones Lang Lasalle.

“The natural thing for these developers is to expand their horizons and push out internationally to find more investors or other sources of capital.”

The National