MIPIM: reflections 2026
Peel Land’s Richard Knight takes a moment to reflect on key takeaways from MIPIM 2026 which once again didn’t fail in providing industry-wide insight and debate.
Sentiment
Whilst acknowledging the ongoing geopolitical instability, the overall mood was upbeat. The market appears positive, in some ways more so than last year, with the underlying fundamentals remaining strong - however, the challenges remain universal. Frustrations with a slow planning process on the ground were echoed across the board, risk averseness, skill gaps, additional costs and complexities like BNG and Gateway 2, were all cited in holding up progress. ‘Viability’ was the word on all lips.
Pipelines for good growth
The theme of public/ private partnerships with associated funding and investment was critical across the piece, with industry welcoming the more ambitious and muscular approach being taken through Mayoral Growth funds and the plethora of new PuFIns (Public Financial Institutions) in response to the Government’s growth agenda. Greater Manchester remains at the forefront with strong pipelines and a clear plan – backed up after the event with a raft of further infrastructure funding declarations, with significant new announcements in the Liverpool City Region and other EMSA’s (Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities – another new acronym).
MIPIM has always been about cities and city-regions; the counties now going through Local Government Reform must act quickly on growth and avoid hiatus. This is a major challenge now facing large parts of England.
Placemaking
One theme strongly evident was a return to placemaking. Cities championed their approach to placemaking – underpinning major regeneration and development projects with culture, heritage, social capital, wellbeing, greenspace and more. Put simply, people want to live and invest where there is a strong sense of ‘place’ – it plays into the issue of talent and skill retention - graduates want to stay where there is authenticity and character, which ultimately brings inward investment and creates opportunity.
This, alongside tackling the housing crisis, creating employment opportunities and supporting sectoral growth that aligns with regional ambitions such as health, clean energy or advanced manufacturing means the cocktail for success is now complex and multi-faceted. Holistic planning and delivery will be key.
Delivering our pipeline
Our pipeline of major investments and partnership approaches which span urban regeneration and sustainable urban extensions, across multiple sectors, diverse housing products and placemaking approaches, are well aligned to respond.
There was huge interest in our projects among partners in the public and private sectors, and an understanding of working to common goals. Above all, MIPIM is a great reminder that we are all part of a wider ecosystem trying to solve ever-growing challenges through collective effort, endeavour and learning from each other.
Richard Knight
Director of Planning and Strategy