THE Cannes yacht party planned by British property tycoons the Tchenguiz brothers was called off yesterday on the second day of MIPIM – after they were arrested by police investigating the collapse of Icelandic bank Kaupthing.
It was a legacy of the recession which grabbed headlines at Europe’s biggest commercial property bash. But otherwise it was business more or less as usual at the event, held annually on the Riviera.
Described in one report as the industrys equivalent of deal-
making speed-dating, it attracted around 18,000 property people from all over Europe this week.
Okay, the Irish were there in much smaller numbers than usual, and most unofficially – not too many opted to pay the steep registration fees, preferring to set up meetings in local cafes and villages such as Mougins.
And there was none of the lavish partying that marked the boom years. (In 2006, the redoubtable Derek Quinlan was the centre of attention after being named Europe’s of dealmarker of the year.)
Lisney’s head of investment, Ann Hargaden, said there were quite a few agents, solicitors, project managers, architects and the like in attendance – but not, unsurpisingly, developers. And there was reportedly no one there from Nama, the largest property owners in Europe.
Ireland is seen as a complete basket case by the Europeans – but that’s not nexcessarily bad news, she reports .
MIPIM’s attraction is as a place where people with money can find investments, and the view is that they’ll never buy cheaper in Ireland than right now.
One Irish company that expects to come home happy from MIPIM is Modelworks, the architectural presentation firm that built the model for Sean Dunne’s doomed Knightsbridge-in-Ballsbridge scheme. It has survived the crash and last year designed a model for a Statoil office block in Oslo.
It was one of the only firms of its kind to take a stand at MIPIM and director Barry Murphy is confident that he’ll come home with some contracts in his pocket: since Tuesday morning’s opening, Modelworks had talked to over 100 property developers from countries that included Russia and Turkey and also to those in Scandinavia – and many had asked for quotes.
