From D&I to ESG, Geography to Infrastructure, It Was a Different MIPIM. And No Black Swans…

I wrote a couple of weeks ago that it was shaping up to be a very different MIPIM this year. It was.

That sharper focus on ESG and D&I materialised. Diversity among the 21,000 registered delegates was visible off and on stage. Some 43% of speakers were women.

Living, life sciences and logistics were front and centre. And the focus of so many conversations was on places, not stacks.

Critically, there were no black swan moments during the event: no Credit Suisse, no SVB.

It might seem like damning a market with faint praise to say the absence of a banking collapse should be a cause for optimism, but block out the noise and it rings true. There was plenty of talk of the bottom being in sight, of inflection points. But perhaps the best evidence that the money is ready to embrace our sector again, is that investors representing over $4tr in assets were in Cannes this week. Where else would you get that level of capital concentration? Davos on La Croisette, said some.

And which sectors might attract that capital was much discussed, of course. Consensus pointed to living. And with a growing recognition that homes require deliveries – 300,000 homes have 300,000 letter boxes after all - logistics will not be losing its allure any time soon. And offices? Well, it depends.

Geographically, the Middle East was prominent. For the first time Oman at MIPIM was in town, Egypt was back, and Saudi Arabia unmissable. With Paris deposing London for the first time, ING Media’s research into the digital visibility of European cities caused a stir. The Evening Standard sent a video crew on to the streets of London to get the public’s reaction. I gave mine from the Paris stand.

But what I’ll take away from MIPIM 2024 is the focus on infrastructure. It has long enabled - and sometimes prevented – investment right across the built environment. 

It’s at the heart of the existential threat that climate change poses – and the need to accelerate the energy transition could not have been more prominent in debate at what is a fundamentally a real estate event.

And it can be a threat. Geopolitical events of recent years have pushed energy and transport security up the rankings of political challenges.

Just as our focus on real estate broadened to become real assets perhaps a decade ago, what will this extension into (or even emphasis on) infrastructure mean for the sector, its priorities, and its returns?

I’m pretty sure we’ll be talking about it at MIPIM 2025.

Damian Wild
ING Managing Director