Another very busy day on the Proplend stand, explaining to borrowers how they can access property debt from alternative finance platforms offering peer to peer lending and also explaining to everyone how they personally can get involved by becoming lenders. Everyone at MIPIM understands property (or they should), they understand the financing side of property and being property people they are always looking for the next deal. Peer to Peer lending offers individuals and institutions the ability to lend money directly to the owner of an income producing commercial property and the loan is supported by a 1st legal charge over the property.
There were lots of property investors who were here looking to meet new lenders and sources of equity and they are surprisingly few, in fact I think there is only one bank represented. When finance is almost as important as the deal itself, I was surprised that more lenders are not here.
In true MIPIM fashion drinks started early, Capco the owners of Olympia hosted a full coffee and drinks bar all day and by 4.30pm we were invited to the AJ (Architects Journal) stand for drinks. It’s terrible that it takes the lure of a cold beer to see how many beautiful buildings there are in London, many of which we walk past every day without noticing.
At 5.30pm Taliance held a drinks reception in the networking area and before we made it from our stand to the reception we were offered more drinks as we passed another couple of stands. There is a very friendly atmosphere here. Finally we headed off to the mezzanine level, where Clare Balding was hosting the MIPIM awards which was followed by another drink reception. No live band tonight but there was music playing in the background and it was a good opportunity to catch up with old colleagues and new contacts.
We think that we have really missed an excellent PR opportunity, rather than a boring 3 x 3m stand we should have hired a 40ft motor yacht and moored it in the middle of Olympia. Bringing a bit of Cannes to Olympia.
