MIPIM focus on UK

The UK has been named 'Country of Honour' for this year's show

Despite the doom and gloom brought by the austerity drive, there will be no sense of dispondency amongst the British contingent at the this year’s MIPIM property convention . It helps that the UK has been named as the 'Country of Honour' at this year's show, with big players from the London luxury property market sitting high amongst the list of exhibitioners.

Representatives from Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham city councils will all discuss how they plan to deal with the challenge of regenerating their cities in the wake of some of the most dramatic and severe public spending cuts since the end of the Second World War. The seminar, 'Making regeneration happen in the UK' will shine a light on the problems facing these cities, with Manchester and Leeds amongst some of areas the mostly badly hit by Osbourne's austerity axe.

A second forum entitled 'From stimulus to austerity - assessing the outlook for UK property' looks particularly pertinent now after The Centre for Economics and Business Research announced in February that UK house prices would dip by 1.7 per cent on average in 2011 with another report in the Guardian suggesting that house prices in some areas could fall by as much as 30 per cent.

With large delegations from Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands there will be a great deal of focus placed on the situation in the UK and investors, developers and governments will use the convention to garner an independent assessment of how to adapt to a new era of property development.

Tying in with the day of honour for Great Britain, a special award, as part of the event's architectural design ceremony, will be bestowed upon one real estate project from the UK capital. The boutique West London W hotel; 5 Merchant Square, a huge office complex in Paddington; and a Canary Wharf development by the  controversial auditory firm KPMG have all been shortlisted for the prize, which honours the best English development of the past twelve months.

In 2011 MIPIM will highlight the ever growing polarisation between affluent areas of the country and the cash strapped cities. On the positive side it also provides an opportunity for developers to invest in projects that will make a real difference to people's lives.

TD