Top takeaways from UKREiiF 2024

In May 2024, members of the Mourant legal practice and Mourant Governance Services teams attended the UK's Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF). This annual event brings together an array of key decision-makers from across the real estate sector, including regional combined authorities, government representatives, investors, funders, developers and housebuilders.

In this post-event round up, Carl McConnell, Director of Mourant Governance Services in Jersey, has summarised the key topics and themes covered over the course of the three-day forum, as well as his own personal takeaways.  

UKREiiF 2024 – an overview

UKREiiF once again brought a diverse chunk of the real estate industry to the city of Leeds, with over 12,000 attendees making the journey this year for its third event.

Despite being established just three years ago, the annual UKREiiF event has proven itself in attracting top industry players and providing an excellent snapshot of the current market sentiment.

This year, people were generally optimistic about the future of the UK real estate market, and when the sun was shining it was very easy to strike up conversations with people in queues for coffees or on shared tables.

In terms of the overall market generally, I got the sense overall that while capital is ready to deploy, the market is still very dislocated (so investors are taking their time to pick certain assets within a sector), and there are some obstacles to overcome for new developments.

There was a sense that we have reached the bottom of the UK market in terms of valuations, and investors are now preparing to get ahead of the next uptick, provided that the fundamentals stack up.

The conference itself was jam packed with a range of talks, so I suspect everyone that attended came back with a different perspective or insight from the sessions that they attended. 

For me, the overall theme and my top takeaways are around the public/private interaction to unlock the UK’s barriers to growth. 

The talks focussed a lot on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues and sustainability, as well as some blue sky thinking on how to deliver on various targets set by government.  

UK political landscape

There was a lot of focus on the political landscape in the UK, particularly with it being an election year.

The event saw a good turnout of MPs and government representatives, including Shadow Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who currently holds the position of Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing, Communities and Local Government. Speaking at the event, she outlined Labour's plans to grow the UK economy and boost the number of houses being built. Various councils were also there to promote their area to developers and investors.

Law firm DLA Piper hosted a session with Lord Gavin Barwell (Member of the House of Lords): General Election 2024 - What will it mean for UK Real Estate. The talk was focussed on 'when' rather than 'if' Labour win the election, and the immediate challenges the party will face if this is the case.

Lord Barwell outlined how the macro economy is looking precarious due to government spending being at an all-time high, and that the fiscal plans that have been suggested by Labour are undeliverable. In his opinion, this means that:

• the Labour government won’t be able to increase taxes as they are already at one of the highest in history; and
• borrowing is also at an all-time high, so the government doesn’t have many levers other than to try to maximise the growth rate of the economy.

With this in mind, it therefore needs to be more business friendly. The only three ways to achieve this is:

• To rejoin the single market (which won’t happen).
• Relax rules around foreign labour (which is difficult to achieve given the current political climate).
• Relax rules around planning (which is the easiest goal).

Solving the housing issue

Much of the conference centred around solving the housing crisis. More affordable houses are required in England, and there hasn't been enough homes being built to keep up with demand. As prices of houses have risen, owning a home has become out of reach for many of the average to lower income families and individuals in the UK. This has meant more people renting, however, with rents also increasing it means that affordability has become an issue.

According to one panellist, Build to Rent (BTR) has risen in popularity with institutional investors because buying a house is now at its most unaffordable for people since 1875. It currently takes on average 11 years to save for a deposit for a house, and in the meantime, people need to rent. Conditions are therefore ripe for further schemes to come to the market to help plug this gap.

However, with latest mandates to ensure that schemes have 35 per cent or more affordable housing, there are big questions around delivery. Setting the bar too high will mean less schemes are viable financially and putting all of the onus on the private sector to deliver affordable housing will mean schemes don’t get through to completion.

Political commentator and former Downing Street Director of Communications and Strategy, Alastair Campbell, also spoke at UKREiiF. A poll conducted during his session revealed that 100 per cent of the audience agreed that Labour will win the next election, but very few from the real estate industry were confident Labour could deliver on its promise of housing delivery given the current challenges.

There are big questions around the ambitions to solve the housing crisis by delivering 300,000 homes a year for the next five years. Angela Rayner had announced at the conference that Labour will create 40 new towns and identify these within six months of coming to power with a presumption in favour of development.

Resourcing the planning departments with enough officers and relaxing the rules may help unlock this potential for growth to help meet targets over the next five years, but it seems that the government cannot rely solely on private sector investment to deliver those goals and will need to do a lot more than relaxing planning.

Diversity and inclusion

As someone who first attended leading property festival MIPIM 10 years ago, it has been noticeable how the attendees at both MIPIM and UKREiiF have gradually started to shift from a very male dominated event to a more diverse crowd.

The real estate industry still has a long way to go, but UKREiiF have made some significant efforts to increase the diversity at the event, through the following measures:

• A D&I Pavilion which hosted a number of events including groups such as Regeneration Brainery, Black Women in Real Estate, Women in Property, Building People, Young Entrepreneurs in Property, Association of Muslim Surveyors and Real Estate Balance;
• Free tickets to under 25s and certain under-represented DEI groups;
• At least 50 per cent  female representation on all panels; and
• Sign language interpreters on hand for any attendees that required assistance.

Host city, Leeds

Leeds is a wonderful northern city with a thriving entertainment and hospitality scene interwoven with canals (the water taxis to and from the festival were a particular highlight and came in handy!).

It has been the home of UKREiiF since its inception three years ago where the event welcomed around 2,500 delegates. In this third year, the attendee numbers grew again. Finding enough accommodation in the city has definitely started to become an issue, and although it is being held in Leeds again in 2025, it will be interesting to see if UKREiiF remains in Leeds in future if the attendee list keeps increasing.

However, given that one of the main targets of UKREiiF is to "connect people, places and businesses to accelerate the Levelling Up Agenda (to spread investment more equally throughout the UK), it seems that this event will rightly remain in Leeds or in the north of England.