Mipim 2026: Regions look to the sky as demand for high-rise, high-quality real estate grows

Delegates from the UK were the second largest contingent at the Mipim event in Cannes, as some of them looked to open up billions of pounds worth of real estate investment opportunities to the world.

CoStar News was in Cannes to discuss major regeneration schemes and commercial real estate projects being pitched as well as the wider trends across UK commercial real estate and development.

One city on the up, in more ways than one, is Liverpool, with a cluster of high-rise tower plans exhibited at this year's conference.

The city is set for a new tallest building, with Davos Property Developments and Beetham Davos unveiling designs for a 70-storey tower that will be the centrepiece of the £1 billion Kings project on Liverpool waterfront.

The mega structure would incorporate a 212-room, 5-star hotel and 563 luxury residences, totalling 924,000 square feet. It would become the second largest building by floorspace in Liverpool after Tobacco Warehouse.

It comes shortly after plans for the first major tower at the masterplan, the 28-storey No1 Kings, received planning consent from Liverpool City Council. That project has a gross development value of £65 million development and will house more than 250 apartments.

Also at Mipim, CoStar News revealed that Kier Property's One Pall Mall Gardens, Liverpool's first new-build city centre Grade A office development for more than 15 years, had reached a key milestone after moving into RIBA Stage 4.

The office block is designed to provide 100,000 square feet during phase one, expanding to around 400,000 square feet once fully built. Stephen Cowperthwaite, Avison Young managing director for Liverpool and UK regions, tells CoStar News that major schemes are helping to build momentum in the city.

"I've been coming to Mipim with Liverpool for the last 11 years, this year it feels like there is a different buzz because we are coming here with projects that are moving forward; Kings is happening, Pall Mall is happening and they are game changers for the city."

He adds that the new office stock will bring on rents in Liverpool that have lagged other major UK cities in recent years: "Liverpool is traditionally the lowest rent and the highest yield across the Big Nine.

"Now you will be pushing high thirties or £40 per square foot and, if you look at other regional cities, that is where you need to be [in terms of] development appraisals."

During the week Liverpool City Region Combined Authority launched a £2 billion Investment Fund that it said will provide the financial firepower to "get things moving" at development sites in the city.

In the week ahead of this year's show, Birmingham stole the regional headlines as Federated Hermes put 3 Chamberlain Square on the block for around £123 million, reflecting a 6.5% net initial yield.

The scheme recently broke the £50 per square foot rental mark in the city and overtook Bristol to become the headline rent holder across the regions. James Seppala, head of real estate Europe at Blackstone, flagged Birmingham to CoStar News as one of the most attractive UK cities for investment.

"Tenant demand for high-quality space is clearly present in regional cities, supporting rental growth and asset performance. For example, in Birmingham, sustained office demand has driven Grade A vacancy rates down to 2.9% and rents up 33% since 201[9.

"Our own asset, The Colmore Building, has performed well, achieving [circa] 30% releasing spreads at lease events since 2022. Liquidity remains for the best assets, with Paradise office buildings under offer for £300 million, and the newly built 3 Chamberlain Square just launched, guiding [circa] £120 million."

Birmingham Central Heart, a major mixed-use neighbourhood development proposed in the city centre, was the major investment opportunity presented by the West Midlands Growth Company at Mipim.

Proposed next to the new HS2 station at Birmingham New Street, the masterplan features more than 5,000 homes and over 4.3 million square feet of commercial floorspace, as well as significant green space.

The project, involving mixed-use development consultancy Sphere Group and global architect Gensler, also aims to bring together several big-name landowners, such as Hammerson, Schroders Capital and The Crown Estate, through the utilisation of significant assets like Martineau Galleries and Martineau Place.

Councillor Sharon Thompson, deputy leader and cabinet member for economy and skills, said in a statement: "By promoting these opportunities on the international stage, Birmingham City Council aims to bring forward development that will directly benefit businesses and residents across Birmingham.

“The city has a strong track record of delivering major development schemes, and working in partnership with our Mayoral Development Corporation, Business Improvement Districts, landowners, public sectors partners, investors and developers, our ambition is to turn the vision of Central Heart into reality."

Speaking to event organisers at this year's conference, Mayor of the West Midlands Richard Parker said: "Our first Mayoral Development Corporation will enable the West Midlands to capitalise on a number of nationally significant investments, [including] Birmingham Sports Quarter, the BBC's relocation to Digbeth, HS2 and more, securing our continued success as a global region at the forefront of the UK economy."

Manchester had a touch of celebrity glamour in Cannes this year, with former Olympic athlete Seb Coe and comedy actor Steeve Coogan both speaking at the UK Hub to attract investors to the region.

Another famous Mancunian, former England international footballer Gary Neville, used Mipim week to launch designs for a new mixed-used neighbourhood centred around the redevelopment of the city's Kendals department store.

Relentless Developments, the property firm Neville leads alongside partner Anthony Kilbride, is working with bank Investec to deliver 230,000 square feet of office space at the former retail asset in Deansgate.

Dominic Pozzoni, director of the national offices team in Manchester at Colliers, says a lack of quality office stock was suppressing take-up volumes across the region, with tenants opting to renew at their existing workspaces.

“There are a number of large regional requirements in the market which owing to the lack of supply, are now having to focus on prelet opportunities.”

"I think it is a question of developers and investors having to look with their eyes wide open and actually going out to bring occupiers into schemes."

He added: "From a regional perspective, we need stock, we need Grade A, new-build stock in addition to the existing buildings. There is rental growth, we have just got to be conscious of the market."

As well as a lack of new-build offices, Jason Winfield, head of UK and Ireland capital markets at Cushman & Wakefield, says the buyer pool for regional offices isn't as deep as it has been, with local, private investors one of the most active cohort.

This, he argues, is despite some "some very compelling structural fundamentals" which include a lack of Grade A supply, people using offices more and civil service jobs moving out of London to the regions.

He said: "It is getting to the point where it has repriced and people can see upside. There are some big, mispriced areas of the market and I think the money will come back over the next four or five years so.

"The big challenge on anything is not today, it is who is my buyer in the next five years, and that has been a very difficult argument if values have been falling."

Marie Doyle, head of Deloitte Northern Ireland and chair of the Belfast City & Region Place Partnership, says the city is evolving its strategy focus from peace to prosperity almost three decades after the Good Friday Agreement.

Doyle says the key behind the city's growth success over recent years has been its focus on specialist clusters, including cyber security and fintech, which have attracted major occupiers.

Her own company has invested significantly in Belfast over the last decade, growing its workforce to more than 1,300 staff. She says the universities and a strong talent pool make it one of the company's key UK hubs, as well the city's "cost advantage".

"The real estate price per square foot in Belfast is probably a quarter of what it is in London, but [there is also the] salary point. If you look at the benchmark salary ranges for Northern Ireland, they are about 25% lower than London, so there is a sizable margin gain on having people in Belfast.

"The more than 1,300 people we have in Belfast are servicing clients across the UK and of course with technology you can do that from anywhere, so that was a clear opportunity."

Having moved into Grade A accommodation at The Ewart at the end of 2024, Doyle says occupying high-quality offices is key for Deloitte and other major businesses in attracting and retaining staff. She says it has also helped to boost its office utilisation figures.

But she points out that the city's pipeline of new-build office stock needs to be healthy to continue to convince businesses to enter the city.

One project expected to deliver a significant swathe of accommodation, around 260,000 square feet, is the Weavers Yard development, a £500 million integrated transport hub.

Doyle said: "It is absolutely critical and there is a challenge around office development now, around viability and speculative development.

"But we are running out of Grade A space in Belfast, so there is a bit of a conundrum in terms of our proposition to occupiers, if the space soon won't be there and that will be a crunch point.

"So we do need to unlock that piece to get some more Grade A office coming on stream to make sure we have the pipeline for the occupiers that we want to bring in."

An issue that has dominated development discussion in the UK for some months is viability, with delegates talking about their experiences of the challenges they facing get schemes off the ground.

This week Cardiff City Council updated people on its plan to build a 120,000-square-foot office building as part of the wider regeneration of Atlantic Wharf, where a new 15,000-seater events arena, delivered and operated by Live Nation, is already rising.

The council hopes the office, alongside modern infrastructure and public realm improvements, will stimulate business activity.

Council leader Huw Thomas, who was working at the Cardiff Capital Region Pavilion in Cannes this year, told CoStar News that the local authority plans to sublet a small part of the new office building to assist with making the scheme viable.

"The decision we have taken is to expand the [scheme] slightly which we will then sublet as a means of overcoming some of the cost increases and as part of that building as well [there will be] a new theatre and production facility for the Wales Millennium Centre.

"You would think it would lend itself towards a public sector-linked organisation, but not necessarily."

Thomas added that Cardiff is close to finishing the major Central Square masterplan after years of work to a number of large offices and a transport interchange. A build-to-rent tower called the Meridian will complete the puzzle.

"From a development point of view, it's about using that transport spine to fill in some of the gaps between the city centre and Cardiff Bay. There is one plot remaining, which is due to go through planning this month, that will potentially be 50 storeys, the tallest building in Wales by some margin."

Mipim 2026 also marked the return of Invest Scotland at the global property meeting, having last attended before the pandemic in 2019.

MLA, PMP, Robertson, Drum Property, Saffery, Brodies, OOBE, and Civic all attended the event to advocate for investment in Scotland’s towns and cities.

Savills head of Scotland Nick Penny told CoStar News that the Glasgow office market had been one of the most active across the regions in terms of office investment transactions.

But like the other regional markets, major cities across Scotland are suffering from a lack of quality stock despite genuine occupational demand.

"Glasgow has been a real success story in terms of activity, this time two years ago I think there was between 25-30 office investments that were either openly being marketed or quietly available.

"Over the last year or so there has been a huge amount of activity in Glasgow, in terms of it having found its pricing and prices softening a little bit an investment sentiment has improved."