Overseas visitors were at MIPIM UK 2015 in relatively small numbers, with the exception, of course, of a delegation of more than 100 Chinese investors which almost overshadowed their president Xi Jinping’s state visit to the UK.
Before heading north, the group – which included China Greenland, ABP, Wanda One and Ping An Trust – made its mark on London’s Olympia. Numerous announcements of sizeable investments were made or confirmed during the three-day conference. These included Chinese construction company SinoFortone investing £100m in the £3.2bn London Paramount Entertainment Resort scheme near Dartford, north Kent and ABP confirming an Estates Gazette’s August exclusive that contractor CITIC Group was buying into its £3bn Royal Albert Docks, E16, project and creating a joint venture to invest in infrastructure and housing projects across the UK.
The Chinese presence also helped to dispel the prevailing impression that foreign investors were only interested in London.
Hong Kong-based CITIC’s head of real estate, Stanley Ching, said that Chinese investors were already discussing more opportunities in the regions, particularly in Manchester and Liverpool.
A handful of Chinese firms have been investing outside London for the past couple of years, with sovereign wealth fund Ginko Tree Investments taking stakes in retail properties in both Bristol and Leicestershire, and Beijing Construction Engineering Group taking a stake in the £800m redevelopment around Manchester airport.
Ching expects that investment to grow rapidly, as does UK prime minister David Cameron, who on the final day of MIPIM UK was in Manchester with the Chinese government’s delegation to announce the creation of a China Cluster at Manchester airport. The £130m development will comprise two new office buildings totalling 484,000. The blocks –Wuhan Square and Shenzhen Gardens – will be reserved for Chinese companies wanting to relocate to the airport city enterprise zone.
The regions put on a good show at MIPIM UK, and talk was dominated by collaboration among councils and regions.
A “northern gateway” partnership of seven councils was launched to attract investment and get 100,000 new homes built in the Midlands by 2040. Birmingham gained further recognition as the big winner at the Estates Gazette/MIPIM UK Awards. It picked up two of the most prestigious prizes – City Leader of the Year for Sir Albert Bore and City of the Year.
Government ministers seemed to be taking the property market seriously with visits from trade and investment minister Francis Maude, who opened the show; Greg Clark, secretary of state for communities and local government; Lord Heseltine; and housing minister Brandon Lewis.
Meanwhile, a visit from former England footballer Rio Ferdinand, looking to launch a series of sports-led regeneration developments, added a little sparkle to the event.
The other RIO, the Regeneration and Investment Organisation, was on hand to explain that it will have deployed around £5bn of capital into UK projects by Christmas. A big number, but only 20% of the potential offered across its portfolio.
Innovation and technology were also strong themes at MIPIM UK 2015. Two winners of the first round of the MIPIM Startup Competition, were announced – UK company OpenSensors.io and Standard Access from the Republic of Ireland, which will now go forward to the final of the competition at MIPIM in March. And delegates heard that crowdfunding and peer-to-peer investment could bolster proptech to ensure it survives future downturns.
As to how seriously proptech will shake up the property sector Faisal Butt, founder and chief executive of proptech incubator PiLabs, said: “If 50% of all house sellers are selling their properties via an online app in the next five years, that’s industry shattering.”
