At its world fair, the real estate sector hopes to get out of the hole

More than 20.000 participants from 90 countries are expected, i.e. a low point close to 2023 (22.500), "which is rather positive in the rather delicate context that we have experienced in recent months", confides the director of the show, Nicolas Kozubek.

The real estate sector is in fact in the doldrums in many countries, such as the United Kingdom, Germany and France, where housing prices have started to fall, as has the rate of new construction.

The surge in interest rates over the past year and a half has significantly contributed to the slump in real estate activity.

By increasing the cost of credit, it strongly discouraged individuals from investing in housing, causing the volume of transactions in existing housing to decrease.

In new construction, high construction costs have added to the drying up of demand, putting developers and builders under great pressure.

For real estate companies, which hold a stock of buildings to rent them out, the surge in rates is pushing them to postpone investment projects and reduce their debt.

But several players present at Mipim want to believe that central banks will begin to lower their key rates in the spring, allowing activity to pick up again.

“We have probably arrived near the end of the bearish cycle and close to a restart of the real estate markets,” wants to believe Raphaël Brault, European investment director for the real estate investor AEW.

“Once we have recognized this state of affairs, we are rather in a logic where we say to ourselves that we are going to begin the entry into a new cycle,” he adds.

The industry must "remain mobilized to launch projects that will nourish the following years", said, during the presentation of the event at the end of January, Antoine Frey, CEO of the commercial real estate company Frey. “Real estate is a business with very long cycles, and before the machine restarts there is always time, and Mipim helps with that.”

The beautiful part for elected officials

While difficulties in accessing housing are affecting a growing number of cities, the subject is at the heart of the summit organized the day before the opening, often revealing major trends.

In the presence of the German Minister of Housing, Klara Geywitz, and the mayors of Copenhagen and Hanover, it will aim, according to the organizers, to "explore solutions to the growing demand for housing, soaring prices and inequality in terms of housing".

“Mipim is sometimes a lot likened to the tertiary sector and the office, so there we are strengthening our approach to housing a lot,” says Nicolas Kozubek.

“We are going to talk about new economic models and new uses,” he explains, citing managed residences, build-to-rent, i.e. the fact of constructing a building to rent it and not to resell it, or coliving, a type of shared accommodation with services.

The show intends to give pride of place to elected officials more than ever.

Former Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, who has since joined the Tony Blair Institute, will give the inaugural lecture.

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and the Housing Ministers of the United Kingdom and Oman are also expected.

Around sixty mayors or leaders of French communities must also participate in the Forum of elected officials, designed to bring together public and private actors.