Mipim 2026: Conflict, AI and the Hunt for Capital Will Set the Tone in Cannes
The industry lands in Cannes on 10 March with more than 20,000 delegates expected at the Palais des Festivals. Last year's crowd drew delegates from 90 countries, including 70% of the world's top 100 investment managers controlling over €4 trillion. This year's agenda is sharper: geopolitical risk, AI, and where global capital deploys next.
Recent attacks on Iran by America and Israel have raised questions over attendance. New organiser head Nicolas Boffi says the conference is monitoring events and staying in close contact with partners. For now, it's business as planned-with more focus on AI and the road to net zero, alongside practical sessions on turning tech change into strategic advantage. See the official programme.
Geopolitics first: energy, inflation and defence spend
The joint attack on Iran is front-of-mind. The read-across for oil and gas prices, inflation and the rate path will be debated in every meeting room. In the UK, the Chancellor has doubled down on stability and committed to the biggest defence investment since the Cold War-another driver of demand for space, logistics and manufacturing footprints.
Where capital wants to go in 2026
Investors enter Cannes with a more balanced rate environment and debt markets that feel liquid again. Many expect bid-ask gaps to continue narrowing, with the return of bigger lot sizes seen late last year in Paris and London. The key question: who supplies the next wave of active capital-and what does that mean for pricing power?
- Japanese capital is expected to stay active, supported by low domestic funding costs.
- Alternatives continue to pull in attention-student housing, data centres and other income-resilient niches.
- Core capital is sniffing around offices again, but geopolitical volatility keeps some on pause.
UK on the front foot
The UK is sending a heavy delegation: senior ministers and mayors from Manchester, Liverpool, the East and West Midlands, plus leaders from Belfast, Cardiff, Central South and Hull. London arrives with deputy mayors Jules Pipe, Tom Copley and Howard Dawber. Scotland returns post-pandemic with Glasgow, Dundee and Edinburgh, backed by investors, developers and government. The UK Hub is back to market projects and crowd in capital.
What the industry expects to hear
John Munday (Colliers): sentiment improving, but sector by sector. Living, core London offices, and sheds look constructive-though stock is tight. The goal in Cannes: tell a compelling, specific UK story that converts to capital.
Rob Wilkinson (Hammerson): retail wants its comeback. Expect more debate on transactions and the new underwriting for retail-led mixed-use.
Neil Slater (Redevco): with rates "normalised," it's time for honest talk on relative value across sectors and the asset class versus private equity and public-market volatility. Development still hinges on earlier, better engagement with planning and local stakeholders. Talent is pivotal-and yes, AI sits inside that efficiency conversation.
Melanie Leech (Real Estate:UK): confidence is tentatively improving, but development viability is still tough-especially housing and mixed-use. Cost of capital, regulatory certainty and planning will determine what actually gets built. Global capital is re-engaging where pricing has reset. Housing and regeneration are centre stage, with build-to-rent and co-living part of the delivery mix. Proptech and sustainability stay high on investor and occupier checklists.
Rates, debt and deal flow
Liquidity in the debt markets and a lower all-in cost of borrowing are helping close the bid-ask spread. If that holds, expect more volume and bigger tickets. But there's competition: infrastructure and selective credit strategies are still drawing allocations, forcing real estate to show cleaner growth and execution.
ESG: still critical, but under more scrutiny
Flows into ESG-labelled funds have slowed and total assets have contracted for the first time since 2017. Decarbonisation targets stand, but politics may slow the tempo. The practical debate at Mipim: remodel versus new build, the NOI impact of hitting ESG targets, and how to capture ROI without drifting from commitments.
Offices: London and the regions
Central London has a shortage of top-grade stock on the open market, with heavy off-market activity. The live questions: is the bid-ask delta closing toward ~5%, where does core money originate, and can rents keep rising with supply so thin?
Across strong regional city centres and the South East, availability of high-quality space remains tight. That's supporting rental tone, nudging confidence up, and giving investors clearer execution paths than 12-18 months ago.
Living, logistics and data centres still command attention
Logistics and living keep their premium. Data centres are now mainstream in conversations, given AI workloads and energy resilience concerns. Expect more prime office refurb, selective new-build, and a focus on where NOI growth-rather than yield compression-can carry target returns.
Consolidation and AI
Mega-mergers are reshaping the investment market, public and private. The consensus: bigger platforms get more efficient and keep growing. AI runs through everything-deal execution, underwriting speed, design and development decisioning, and operations. It also raises tenant risk questions if some occupiers need less space over time.
Europe's housing pressure
Expect blunt talk on affordability and delivery models. From 2015 to 2023, housing costs jumped by nearly half in Spain and doubled in Portugal. Public-private partnerships, faster approvals and targeted capital stacks will be key to unlocking volume at the right price points.
Has the market turned?
Leadership teams will trade views on whether valuations have finally bottomed, if capital is rotating back, and which cities have credible housing ambition. For offices, the discussion ties back to AI: where does demand settle and how do you underwrite fit-for-purpose space?
Dealmakers' checklist for Cannes
- Rates and funding: where do EU/US end-year policy rates likely land-and how long can today's spreads hold?
- Capital sources: Japanese institutions, Middle East, US managers-who's active now and on what terms?
- Bid-ask delta: which sectors and geographies have truly cleared, and at what cap?
- NOI growth drivers: where are rental uplifts bankable over 3-5 years?
- Development feasibility: planning certainty, cost inflation, and the remodel vs new-build call.
- ESG with ROI: what upgrades meet regulation and tenant demand without killing returns?
- AI impact: faster underwriting and delivery on one side; changing occupier footprints on the other.
- Partnerships: local expertise and JV structures that de-risk entry and speed delivery.
What people want from Mipim this year
Law firms are reconnecting clients and compressing months of meetings into days. Developers are pushing near-term deals and prime office partnerships. Blue-chip managers are stress-testing allocations, talking consolidation, and comparing leverage economics in Europe versus the UK, where borrowing costs diverge by 100 bps or more.
The common theme: execution. Unlock stalled sites, accelerate planning, and align public money with long-term private capital. The message many want to send from Cannes is simple-consistency builds confidence, and confidence closes deals.
Next steps
- Confirm your sector playbook: where you have real pricing conviction and a clear path to NOI growth.
- Line up decision-makers: lenders, equity partners and local authorities-same room, concrete timelines.
- Build your AI edge: faster deal screening, cleaner cashflow forecasting, and smarter retrofit decisions. Explore AI for Real Estate & Construction to level up your team's capability.
2026 won't reward hopeful pitches. It will reward clear theses, costed plans, and partners who can move. See you on the Croisette.
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