Putting the crunch to bed

This year's fair in Cannes confirmed that the CEE property market is coming back to life. There was more optimism in the air this time round. but despite some caution, the general view was that Normality is returning

According to the official data from the organisers, the number of participants increased by app. 8 pct to reach over 18,600 this year. The general impression? It seems that most representatives of the sector now just want to put the credit crunch behind them. Perhaps this is why there were considerably fewer parties but more business meetings and serious talks. These are expected to bear physical fruit in the form of projects and transactions. And apart from a few exceptions, the projects on show were clearly much better suited to the present reality of the market. The extravangant visions of the boom period - such as huge skyscrapers or multifunctional districts - had gone. As one of the participants commented, the dreamers and fantasists had simply stayed at home. This year's MIPIM also showed that it is Poland, or rather Warsaw, that is generating the most enthusiasm in Central and Eastern Europe. The slogan ?a green island in a red sea of recession' appeals to investors' imaginations better than any events or dry statistics. The panellists of the ?Eurobuild CEE' discussion (sponsored by Cushman & Wakefield and led by Richard Stephens) were certainly in an upbeat mood. The discussion began with the question ?Is Poland in danger of being over-hyped?' Those taking part in the debate included: Ben Bannatyne of ProLogis, Jörg Banzhaf of Atrium European Real Estate, Adrian Karczewicz of Echo  Investment, Richard Petersen of Cushman & Wakefield, Michał Sternicki from Aareal Bank and Rafał Twarowski representing ECE Projektmanagement. They agreed that the Polish economy is based on strong foundations and that the property market has good prospects for the future. The panellists argued that the growing demand from tenants and the growth of consumption expenditure give reason to believe that a bright future awaits Polish real estate. "Poland, and in fact Warsaw is no longer treated as an emerging market. A lot of companies now regard the country as one of the main European markets," announced Karl-Joseph  Hermans-Engel, the managing director of Union Investment Real Estate during MIPIM. It was also apparent that the CEE has ceased being homogenous when it comes to investment. Funds do not want to put all the countries of the region into one basket. "It can be clearly seen that Poland and the Czech Republic differ considerably from the other countries," noted John Duckworth, the managing director for the CEE region at Jones Lang LaSalle.
All in all, the agents, developers and bankers gathered just wanted to talk about the facts again.  According to the experts at  MIPIM, this is a harbinger of higher numbers of projects and investment transactions to come.