Carlo Sant'Albano, Cushman and Wakefield, MIPIM international real estate show, Cannes: Global $1.3 trillion property market

Global property transactions are predicted to spike in volume and value during 2014. Property players promise to more aggressively chase London development opportunities, writes Paul Coleman.

Local politicians at MIPIM seek to cut 'regeneration' deals on public land with corporate developers

Transaction satisfaction

The predicted magic number for total 2014 global real estate transactions is $1.3 trillion (£800 billion).   

That's up from the estimated $1.2tn for 2013. 

It's just a number, albeit huge and possibly mythical.
But it's the pot of gold at the end of the real estate rainbow - and it's galvanising upbeat delegates at MIPIM, the 'international real estate show' in Cannes. 

People like Carlo Barel di Sant’Albano plan to make sure their clients get big handfuls from the pot of gold.
And they'll be grabbing as much as they can of London.

Sant'Albano, executive chairman of property services provider Cushman & Wakefield, quietly heralds the end of real estates' ‘dark years’ that followed in the wake of the banking and finance ‘meltdown’ of 2008.

Sant’Albano tells his fellow 'MIPIMites': “The lull in transaction volumes is over. Relative to the past six or seven years, it’s a totally different feeling. Investors are now willing to take decisions.

Appropriately and aggressively

“London continues to be a very exciting part of the world,” continues London-based Sant’Albano. “We have to find opportunities for our clients, to help them accomplish their strategic plans, as appropriately and as aggressively as possible.”

The United States and Western European cities, like London, will be crucial.

London’s ‘prime central’ property market therefore seems set to continue to drive up house prices, rents and land values across the city. 

In turn, Londoners on average and lower incomes will struggle further to find genuinely affordable homes.

Paul Coleman, London Intelligence, March 2014.