Lisbon returns to the investors’ meeting at MIPIM

The city is once again present in a collective stand from Invest Lisboa, which is looking for partner companies to share the it, benefitting from a privileged location near the fair’s entry, which will provide it «more exposure, better location and more services to receive investors, such as a bar or a presentation area, besides lower costs».

During the MIPIM Meet Up – Lisbon event organised by Invest Lisbon, which took place this week at the Câmara de Comércio de Lisboa (Lisbon Chamber of Commerce), Diogo Ivo Cruz explained that «this year, Lisbon is Europe’s green capital, and we want to reflect that in our stand – a city with good quality of living, attractive for companies».

Albert Castro, from MIPIM, pointed out that Lisbon «is one of the cities that grow the most in terms of real estate investment». Its presence at MIPIM 2020 comes at a time when the event «will have a designated area for real estate developers, and many investors are looking for local housing partners in Portugal as well. Lisbon will have its own stand which is the best way of obtaining visibility and more contacts and meetings at the fair», he concluded.

City hall bets on digitalisation to follow the market

The Lisbon City Hall is a fundamental partner in terms of promoting the city’s competitiveness abroad. And Ricardo Veludo, councilman at the municipality, guarantees that the goal is to, «match the city’s economic dynamics».

Concerning the licensing requests, one of the main complaints from the real estate players, the councilman advanced that «we are working on the delays we have», namely through a larger digitalisation within the urban procedures. On the other hand, the City Hall intends to become «more transparent in terms of taking decisions concerning the processes, namely in communicating with the petitioners».

«Transparency and digitalisation are old demands from APPII so that Lisbon can keep competing with other European cities and they are urgent» commented Hugo Santos Ferreira, APPII’s executive vice-president. Pedro Vicente, Board Member at Habitat Invest shares the same opinion, and considered that «we must remember we are not alone. When an investor looks at Lisbon, he is also looking at 20 other cities. We must never forget that we are competing».

Pedro Vicente commented that developers «understand the municipality’s path», referring the lack of human resources, but he defended that «there must be an important commitment to keep the city competitive and licensing is vital».

Hugo Santos Ferreira further shared that «we would like to feel that the municipality is open to study projects together. We must end this «war» between public and private, we all work towards the same goal».

Ricardo Veludo guaranteed that the city hall «looks at the real estate sector as a partnership. We want a city where the private sector will remain the main protagonist in terms of housing offer», within a context of deep imbalance between offer and demand that needs to be improved.