Webinar on dealmaking in urban real estate development

The Connect21 webinar series brings together international experts in the fields of planning and real estate to discuss the latest trends and challenges facing urban development. The second session of the Connect21 Webinar Seminar took place on June 23, 2021, and focused on the effects of Covid19 on blurred boundaries and dealmaking in cities from planning and real estate perspectives.

Planners and real estate industry actors are dependent on each other for financing, regulating, and implementing urban real estate development. In this process, boundaries between public and private sectors, roles, and responsibilities are often blurred.

The Covid19 pandemic has accentuated this trend, and cities are facing a growing number of issues such as inadequate housing supplies, deficient amenities, property vacancies, and inner-city retail challenges that can only be solved through close collaboration between planning authorities and real estate firms.

The webinar featured three speakers: Emma Street, Associate Professor of Urban Policy and Governance at the Henley Business School, University of Reading; François Viruly, Associate Professor of Property Economics, Property Investment and Property Finance at the University of Cape Town; and Eric Huybrechts, Manager of International Affairs at L’Institut Paris Region.

The speakers discussed how planning authorities and real estate industry actors are dealing with the dynamic needs and preferences of each other, and whether new forms of collaboration are emerging or longstanding alliances and disputes are simply continuing. They also explored the short-term and long-term consequences of changing interdependencies and ways of dealmaking between planners and real estate industry actors.

The speakers provided valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities facing planners and real estate industry actors in the post-Covid19 era.