Nai Pickard

MIPIM 2010: review from NAI Pickard

The largest international real estate exposition event, MIPIM 2010, which took place in Cannes, France, has come to the end. On the whole it showed a positive mood among the delegates, who have already recovered from shock, and enthusiastically discussed the first recovery signs. With 17, 300 attendees from 81 countries and 1, 720 exhibiting companies, attendance figures for MIPIM 2010 were comparable with those of 2009. It is remarkable, that this year among the delegates there were many representatives of local and public authorities.

However, the number of Ukrainian stands in Cannes was low. Financial crisis, which has put on hold many development projects and cut off the access to financial resources, distinctly reduced the interest of Ukrainian companies in participation in international exhibitions. As a result, only 24 companies were registered at MIPIM (compared to 200 in 2008). Furthermore, only 10 of them were exhibitors, among which 4 international consultants - NAI Pickard, DTZ, Colliers and CB Richard Ellis, 2 law companies - Beiten Burkhardt and Baker & McKenzie, and also HCM Group, CJSC Ukrainian Construction Company, Gruppa Razvitie and IBC Stolitsa.

NAI Pickard’s team of 4 represented Ukraine on the stand of NAI Global where NAI partners from 17 other countries were also present. NAI Pickard has brought a catalogue “Prime Property Investment Opportunities in Ukraine” with altogether 25 projects, among them 7 projects of hotels and 6 mixed-use projects (3 of which are with a hotel component). The selection of the projects reflected the view of project owners to the market realties and possible demand. Besides, the potential of the hotel segment was noted at the round-table discussion “Fresh look at hotel development”, where it was mentioned, that this segment can become the most perspective in Ukraine, Russia and Turkey in the next 3 years.

Despite these positive trends in European market investors are looking at Ukraine with cautious optimism, preferring countries with more stable economies. However, the fact that property values decreased so much gives the new investors great opportunity to benefit from a stronger yield shifts than in Western Europe and gives a good chance for repetition of a period of very strong returns. Having taken the catalogue “Prime Property Investment Opportunities in Ukraine” (all the edition was spread purposively), investors showed that they started making plans, which is already a good sign.

NAI Svefa, an official representative of NAI Global in Sweden, came to MIPIM with the most numerous team of 11.  Their schedule of meetings was arranged in advance, and this reflects the gradual recovery, which has started in several European markets. NAI Baltics, the NAI representative in Baltic States, acted at MIPIM as a consultant of Riga city administration, revealing the most interesting projects in Latvia. NAI Becar, the NAI member in Russia, also demonstrated business activity, having participated in many discussions and conferences on the stands of St Petersburg and Moscow, and also in other events highlighting the Russian property market.

NAI Members conducted a large number of negotiations on their stand and on the company yacht “The Costa Magna”. Informal communication with partners and clients during the daily meetings at 17:00 on the yacht, was very active and fruitful, which is the traditional and distinctive feature of the NAI network.

As to Ukrainian neighbours, Russia and Poland, they were represented at the exhibition on a large scale. Russian delegates have shown stability in terms of the number of stands and participants (more than 1000). Apart from Moscow and St Petersburg, other regions of Russia were presented well.  Krasnodar region was the most noticeable among them.

Also outstanding was the participation of Poland (more than 400 participants), which was elected “The guest of Honour” for MIPIM 2010. According to the experts Poland continues to be the most attractive region for investment in Central and Eastern Europe. One must mention also the prestigious “MIPIM Awards”, where the jury for the first time paid special tribute to the Polish Project Andel’s Hotel Lodz.