The event, organized by Círculo Inmobiliario Meridiana together with Gesvalt and Roca Junyent, had a large number of attendees, indicating the growing interest of the sector in locating and competing in the international escape. It presented the central theme of the next edition of MIPIM "Mapping World Urbanity" and the Spanish Conference, and discussed the growing role of cities in the real estate sector as well as the importance of Fairs, such as MIPIM, to boost the economy.
Sandra Daza, Managing Director of Gesvalt opened the event stressing the importance of MIPIM for Spanish real estate and presented the colloquium "Investment in Spain and new challenges in the big cities", moderated by Roger Pla, partner of Roca Junyent and with the participation of Jaime Montalvo, Project Director of Invest in Spain; Luis Martín Guirado, Director of Business Development of Gesvalt and Teresa Olszewski, Director of Marketing and Communication of the Canalejas Project.
In the colloquium, Luis Martín Guirado emphasized the growing impact and importance of PropTech in all real estate sectors. Roger Pla, in line with the central theme of MIPIM stated that "Cities will be the players per excellence in real estate in the coming years". Luis Martín Guirado deepened into the role of cities as a focus of international investment in 2018: "We have seen a second wave of growth that has focused on Valencia and Alicante, but also cities like Seville, A Coruña or Zaragoza that will be in the focus of investor interest with all types of assets this year. Consequently, the analyzed cities such as Madrid and Barcelona will continue, but foreign investors will need, more than ever, that professional advice in markets not so accessible to knowledge to understand the investment drivers."
On the other hand, Teresa Olszewski, highlighted the key role of large projects such as Canalejas to boost investment in large cities: "We have been the catalyst for many investments that have been made since 2012 in the area, we estimate about €1,200 million".