Investment is set to be a major focus at UKREiiF 2024 (The UK’s Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum), showcasing the influential role of investors in shaping the future of the UK’s built environment. The event is gearing up to highlight the significant contributions of various investment entities.
Scheduled to take place in Leeds in May 2024, this three-day event is expected to draw almost 12,000 attendees, including international guests. The forum will provide a stage for UK cities and regions to discuss opportunities across various sectors, with investment being a central theme. This includes key areas such as housing, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, technology, healthcare, energy, retail and high streets, infrastructure, leisure and hospitality, and industrial.
Notable among the participants are pension funds like Legal & General and Phoenix Group, both securing prime locations for their dedicated activities. Lloyds Banking Group is also returning for a second year with their own dedicated pavilion. New sponsors include UK Infrastructure Bank, English Cities Fund, and PIC.
Additionally, some of the world’s foremost investors, funders, and asset managers will be attending. This includes names like Blackstone, Macquarie, abrdn, Aviva, Barings, Barclays, Orchard Street IM, Blue Coast Capital, Canada Life, CC Land Holdings, Columbia Threadneedle, Commerz Real AG, Greater Manchester Pension Fund, Coutts, Cowell Group, Deutsche Finance International, Evans Randall, Yoo Capital, Heimstaden Bostad, DWS Group, Federated Hermes, Feldberg Capital, Gresham House, HSBC, ING Bank, Invesco, Investec, M&G Real Estate, LXI REIT, M7 Real Estate, PGIM Real Estate, Precede Capital Partners, Clear Sky Capital, Qatari Diar, IFM Investors, Amro Partners, Wimmer Family Office, Tishman Speyer, Borders to Coast Pension Partnership, and many others.
This event is poised to be a key platform for investment discussions, underlining the sector’s crucial role in the UK’s economic and infrastructural development.
Event Background
Launched in 2022 the event is held over three-days and brings together the public and private sector, with all of the UK’s cities and regions represented alongside UK Government and the numerous governmental departments. Over 700 speakers will be involved across 30-stages with major speakers from local authorities, developers and investors in addition to end users like Warner Bros, Essar and Toyota.
Having grown from 3,500 attendees in 2022 to 7,500 in 2023, the event in 2024 is set to attract over 12,000 to Leeds. In addition to 12,000 attendees the event is set to attract a further 3,000 people to the city to enjoy the fringe events across the city – with £20m set to be generated for the local Leeds community. The event generated £2.25m in social impact in 2023 for the local economy.
Facilitation and Investment
The event has already been lauded across the UK by many cities and regions – with Torbay Council recently confirming a major £100m investment into the seaside destination, which is set to create jobs, homes and revitalise the leisure offering in the region, all happening directly because of the event. In addition to this there are several other schemes totalling over £500m of investment known to be in the pipeline across other cities following direct facilitation and introductions at the event.
During UKREiiF international and domestics investors, developers and occupiers will be invited to meet and greet UK cities and regions to understand their requirements and see if there are any natural collaborations and partnerships that can be brought forward.
This provides a huge opportunity for anyone from the investment sector to be at the heart of the conversations early.
High Praise
The sudden emergence of UKREiiF as Europe’s fastest growing real estate and built environment event comes with much high praise from senior figures in the industry:
President of international investors Amro Partners said: “UKREiiF tells me that the UK is open to business and as an investor that is a fantastic message. The event brings together Government ministers and officials, people from Whitehall, local authorities, investors, and developers – it’s a phenomenal representation of the real estate sector.”
Alan Denby, Director of Pride in Place at Torbay Council, added: “Being at UKREiiF has enabled Torbay to have discussions with investors, developers and occupiers, and from these discussions we’ve announce the preferred development partner to work with us on four key development sites worth over £100m to the local community, and that investment is a direct result of being involved in UKREiiF.”
Alastair Campbell, Former Director of Communications for No.10 Downing Street, said: “UKREiiF brings together all the different parts of the equation that are needed to regenerate regions and the economy successfully. And it’s changing people’s view of the industry world.”
Greg Ward, Principal Regeneration Office for Economic Development at North Northamptonshire Council: “I was unsure of the opportunities UKREiiF would bring, but I decided to attend, and our council was pleasantly surprised. There was a lot of learnings to have, but the dedicated investment and development facilitation sessions were excellent, in which we had 5 prospects come from this which has led to follow up meetings in North Northamptonshire.”
International Delegates
Around 1,500 delegates are expected from overseas including a trade delegation from Asia headed up by the Department for Business and Trade. European capital investors and developers will be in attendance, attracted by the strength of the UK’s market, especially in new and emerging sectors such as Agri-Tech, Life Sciences, Aerospace, EV, and Data Centres.
International cities and regions are also signed up – with those registering early including Illinois State, New York Economic Development Corporation, Choose Paris, Business Iceland and the Municipality of Genoa with many more set to announce their attendance as they look to share best practice amongst UK regions whilst sharing their own case studies and success stories.
To find out more visit www.ukreiif.com
