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MIPIMWorld is live! Meet Patrycja Miklińska and Alan Colquhoun in Cannes, France. One of the hot topics during MIPIM is the ESG strategy - check the insights overview from interesting panels about ESG:
- Abigail Dean, Global Head of Strategic Insights, Nuveen, a TIAA company, mentioned that 40% of global carbon emissions are from real estate but pointed out that embodied carbon (i.e. "built in" during construction) can be the equivalent of up to 50 years' worth of operational carbon emissions.
- Guy Grainger, Global Head of Sustainability Services & ESG, JLL, said the commercial real estate business is often based around historic data, e.g. valuations, but ESG has shifted things to a future looking agenda. However, the priority now must be on the present - living up to the many commitments being made by clearly demonstrating actions taken and demonstrating progress. He added this is particularly important for listed companies and those in the public eye.
- Donato Saponara, Head of West Europe Transaction & Country Head Italy, Allianz Real Estate, said about their large letting to Deloitte in central Milan where Allianz had invested in an existing building to "future proof" it in terms of sustainability and occupant well-being.
- Sara Jane Viereck, CPA, VP, ESG Europe, Prologis, mentioned that in existing properties Prologis is installing LED lighting with substantial energy and cost savings. The company also introduced a program called Park Life to reach out to tenants, truck drivers, employees, and other stakeholders to focus on their well-being and other aspects.

All the panelists agreed that investors/landlords must cooperate and collaborate with tenants. Abigail Dean mentioned that difficulties sometimes arise because of the different measurement and reporting frameworks with the landlords’ and tenants’ businesses perhaps using different benchmarks.

On the other panel “ESG challenges and opportunities in the real estate sector” speakers shared some other valuable thoughts:
- Luis Martin Guirado, Corporate Director of Business Development of GESVALT, mentioned that ESG is a trending topic because of climate changes, and the change of way of consuming, investing, and now the 3 important aspects of investments are risk, profitability, and ESG compliance. In 2025, 5 trillion USD will be invested only in projects fully compliant with ESG. He claimed that if you have a project that is not fully ESG compliant, you risk being out of the market.
- Gastón Gaitán, CEO of theleisureway highlighted the importance of mixed-use projects. Nowadays the consumers and their decisions are different and what brings sustainability is connecting the place, the people, and the emotions. They are the key factors to create a life around the place and not just buildings - projects will die if we do not take it into the consideration.

What do you think about the current retail market reality - do people still want to back to physical shopping or not?

Meet Patrycja Miklińska at MAPIC Cannes by MAPIC World in France! The international retail property market on-site event is taking place from 30 November to 2 December. MAPIC gathers thousands of retail, food, property as well as leisure leaders from dozens of countries to discuss together the retail market reality.

Getting back to our question, Wilhelm Hubner from HERMIONE People & Brands | HPB claimed that in France people want to get back to physical shopping and human relationships with staff as well as clients are very important. It is crucial to remember nowadays also about sustainable consumption, using data to create value, having integrated software, making the cities more dynamic, and being open for new brands as well as new partners. He also highlighted that there is no choice - continuing the digital and environmental transformation is a must and its three main dimensions challenging for managers are physical, digital, and human.

Michel Ohayon from Financiere Immobiliere Bordelaise who first appeared at MAPIC in 1995, mentioned a.o. about adapting to the situation during the crises and brands synergies. It is crucial to listen to customers’ needs and keep retailers in on-site shops, especially for real estate owners who rent space to them.

What is the current situation in various sectors of the real estate market?

During The 27th Annual Property Market Convention in Poland organized by Eurobuild CEE in Warsaw specialists shared their insights about the present and the future condition of the industry. Velis was also onsite, where Łukasz Szweblik was our representative.

During the opening lecture "Economics and morning coffee", Economist and Financial Market Analyst Marek Zuber introduced the current macro and microeconomic situation from the global, as well as European perspective, with particular emphasis on Poland. Many opinions proved that there will be a temporary period of financial uncertainty. However, it should be overcome in the long-term perspective. The global development of various technologies allows us to calmly think about the further development of countries and their GDP.

Specialists from the office, logistics, retail, and residential real estate markets at the discussion panel "Investment market: there was no repression" presented the current situation in each sector of the real estate market.

Piotr Trzciński, MRICS, Head of Investment at Savills Investment Management, confirmed the further dynamic development of the logistics properties sector. Many years of backlogs in this area have already been recuperated in previous years, but the dynamic growth of the e-commerce market, driven by the pandemic, causes the need for further investments.

Regarding ​the office buildings sector, Dorota Latkowska, Vicepresident, REINO Group Partners, admitted that buildings had to undergo a transformation, as many companies switched to remote/hybrid working. However, it turns out that the optimism is returning to this sector again. New, long-term lease agreements with both existing and new companies prove that.

Having implemented our solutions in over 10,000 buildings in more than 20 countries on five continents, we have often encountered a number of challenges. Adam Penkala, as a Moderator during today’s discussion, has been sharing the experience with Krzysztof Świątczak, CEO of IU Technology and Grzegorz Kuźlak, Co-Founder at Fliko, about the effective implementation of PropTech projects at Kongres Obiektów organized by Magazine Obiekty . You could also meet Dariusz Meres at this event gathering real estate professionals in Warsaw.

The two-day congress brought various valuable real estate market insights:

- What are the key elements of successful technology implementations?
„I would focus on a part from the client’s side and for my point of view it is a project team which will be responsible for the implementation and for sure someone from the IT side.” advised Krzysztof Świątczak, UI Technology, and Grzegorz Kuźlak, Fliko, highlighted that „Based on our experience, the key issue is onboarding, showing the value of implemented innovations, technologies, and communication – let’s treat it as an opportunity, not a threat.”

- Adam Penkala pointed out that after successful implementation we cannot forget about the absorption of implemented PropTech solution. Showing clearly the real benefits for users, e.g. tenants, is crucial because it may turn out that after some years the software is used by fewer users than it should be. It is also important to think about the future and how the big data gathered in the system may help in staying ahead of the competition.

- During the panel „Analysis. Objects – transformation. How to manage to gain?” Zuzanna from Cushman & Wakefield spoke about the increasing role of media savings, BMS systems, amenities for tenants and people who work in the building. Employers must possess nowadays a functional and economical office space to attract qualified employees. Another crucial aspect is the technology that increases the property value and training staff on these systems. She also mentioned green buildings, WELL Certification, and pointed out that buildings should be resistant to climate changes – e.g. warehouse halls had a problem with rapid storms, winds, etc.

Alan Colquhoun was honored to be a member of the jury during this year’s CEE Investment Awards and to select the best players in the commercial real estate industry.

Besides announcing the winners during the evening awards gala, this year’s panels discussions focused on financial investments, crime and other business risks, space digitization as well as sustainability, office, retail, and logistics topics.

One of the interesting insights was that banks are not concerned about pre-COVID-19 loans because of the way how they are structured. Łukasz Białecki, Director, Head of Real Estate Financing at Bank Pekao S.A. believes that the office sector will recover well. On the other hand, Hubert Abt, founder, and CEO of New Work had pointed out that inflation, including energy costs, will increase office running costs by around EUR 2-3 per sqm.

The event organized by EuropaProperty.com was recognized as one of the most valuable and significant real estate events in the CEE region. We are honored that based on our experience we could participate in choosing the best companies in the real estate industry which consists of a lot of various firms creating together an integral, well-functioning whole.

Meet the Velis team at events in various parts of the world – today Krzysztof Gawliczek is participating in the 20th edition of the Real Estate Market Autumn in Prague, in the Czech Republic. The conference organized by Stavební fórum always brings a fresh look at the condition and trends in the Czech real estate market:

• During the panel „Office and Retail: New Reality” Petr Palička from Penta Investments emphasized that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the level of vacancies in office buildings did not reach the level of the last crisis of the year 2008. Although it becomes more and more popular to talk about speculative construction, the construction of new buildings does not hold back. Tenants’ requirements are changing when it comes to green areas, access to public transport, and generally the so-called “other”, “soft” factors regarding offices. Petr claimed that there is basically no qualitative change in designing new office spaces in comparison to the pre-COVID-19 times.

• Jana Vlkovaá from Colliers pointed out that offices of the future will need to be more „cool”. This transformation didn’t start with COVID-19, although the pandemic has accelerated it. It is the most visible in the development of companies from the PropTech sector which fill the resulting gap and respond to market needs. According to research, the reason why traditional offices will not disappear is largely due to the need for socialization and informal meetings.