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Against the backdrop of an ever more challenging geopolitical environment, more than 20,000 real estate and investment professionals and political representatives from 90 countries attended the 36th MIPIM at the Palais des Festival on the Côte d’Azur.
As many as a third of attendees were investors, according to the organizers. Alongside cautious investment strategies, there also seemed to be an emphasis on asset quality, with ESG having become a capital markets issue.
“The strongest message coming out of MIPIM this year was that European real estate has moved beyond the correction phase and is now focused on positioning,” comments Christopher Mertlitz, head of European investments at the sale and leaseback specialists W. P. Carey.
“The mood in Cannes was constructive and more positive than in recent years, but market participants remain focused on disciplined deployment of capital. Discussions were dominated by geopolitical concerns, their market implications, and the ever-present theme of AI and its growing impact,” he notes.
“Investors are returning to the market, but they are becoming more selective about where they deploy capital and how they underwrite risk. In our discussions this week, a clear theme was the growing role of sale-leasebacks as a corporate finance solution,” Mertlitz says.
“In the current environment, access to flexible capital remains a key priority for many companies, and sale-leasebacks are increasingly being leveraged as a tool to unlock liquidity, support reinvestment and modernization, and facilitate M&A activity,” he adds.
The Ukraine promotion stand has been present at MIPIM for 22 years, including the four years of war since Russia’s invasion of the country.
“We continue to do business and show that Ukrainians live a normal life despite daily bombardments,” says Sergiy Drach, investor relations and business development manager at Terwin. The stand promoted Ukraine’s first planned national network of class “A” logistics parks, covering 360,000 sqm of space across three sites, with the first 90,000 sqm phase due to start this year. The Ukrainian developer is seeking equity joint ventures and co-development debt financing arrangements, according to Drach.
Hungary, Romania, Albania and several leading Polish cities had a strong presence with promotional stands, reflecting the perceived need for companies, cities, regions and country promotion agencies to market their domestic investment opportunities to international developers, investors and lenders.
The theme of the Hungary stand continues to be “Industrial Excellence,” reflecting the significant FDI Hungary has attracted and the resulting boom in industrial and logistics development markets around Budapest and, increasingly, provincial centers. Representatives included HelloParks, Innovinia, InPark, Faedra and Wing Industrial.
Another leading industrial developer, CTP, was promoting itself. It has an industrial network of more than 250 locations totaling a GLA of 14.6 million sqm, with two million sqm under construction, and a strategic landbank of 34 million sqm across 12 countries in Europe.
The core markets for CTP are the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania, while the growth markets are Poland, Serbia and Bulgaria.
“Two-thirds of our development is with existing customers. In general, around 60% of lettings are undertaken on a pre-lease, and 40% are speculative,” comments Jakub Kodr, managing director of CTP Czech Republic.
“BTS reflects the customization of leases with specific requirements with regard to height and flooring. This is enabled through in-house contractors and designers. Construction periods are from 8-12 months with the land bank allowing steady growth,” he adds.
Hungary promotes itself as offering quality assets with a significant yield premium compared to Western Europe, Poland, and the Czech Republic. Tim O’Sullivan, head of capital markets at CBRE Hungary, argues that there is “election-dependent” cautious sentiment regarding investment in Hungary. However, he adds that three investment deals were concluded at MIPIM, worth a combined EUR 150 million. He anticipates a similar investment total to the previous year at EUR 600 mln-800 mln.
As a region, Central Europe is seen as an attractive investment destination as domestic players diversify their portfolios.
“We leverage our in-house expertise to efficiently manage a high-quality office portfolio across the CEE region. High-growth CEE capitals within strategic reach of our Budapest HQ, enable hands-on management and strong risk adjusted returns,” comments Álmos Mikesy, chairman of the board and CEO of Gránit Asset Management.
“This means a focused regional platform investing in class ‘A’ offices, combining Western stability with emerging market upside,” he adds.
Gránit Asset Management describes itself as having a strategic CEE Focus targeting class “A” premium office buildings in Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Belgrade and Bucharest. That offers institutional-grade stability with emerging-market yield potential in high-growth capitals that are within a five-hour journey from Budapest, enabling direct oversight and market agility. The fund has a target size of EUR 500 mln and a target return of 14.53% per annum, the firm says.
“CEE in general has a potentially stronger economic growth than the western part of the continent for the reason that we are still converging economies; there is economic potential in this, which is a long-term story that could continue for a minimum of 10 years,” says Gábor Borbély, head of CEE business development and research at CBRE.
“Half of the investment volumes in the region are undertaken by domestic capital and a further quarter by CEE investors; we are not so reliant on Western European, American or Asian capital as we once were. However, Chinese capital is still important for Hungary, and the Nordic countries are extending into CEE, starting with Poland and filtering further to the south,” he notes.
“In all markets, there is more domestic capital active as international capital is not moving around. Obviously, it would be good to have investors with a large amount of money paying more attention to Hungary and increasing the turnover,” Borbély concludes.
MIPIM will return to the Palais des Festivals from March 15-19, 2027, by which time the organizers, sponsors and participants alike will hope that the geopolitical volatility has eased.
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of March 27, 2026.
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