Hospitality: The Ball’s Most Desired Asset Class
Once scattered across the development projects of local authorities, countries, regions and above all major metropolises, hospitality has found its own place and identity within the Cannes International Market for Real Estate Professionals.
The movement was already underway, but the 2025 edition marks a new stage. The Hospitality tent, run by MKG Consulting and Hospitality-ON, was the second most-visited area at MIPIM. This is both an acknowledgement of the importance of this asset class for real estate players, and a concrete demonstration of investors' interest in supporting the development of offerings from large and smaller hotel chains.
The Cannes event is more than ever a must for hotel developers, who are now clinging to their asset-light model, which involves convincing partner owners and finding local opportunities. Like the Cannes Film Festival, which serves as a pretext for the world's biggest film market, MIPIM is a showcase for current and, above all, future achievements in urban development, in which hospitality has earned its stripes as a key player.
The market is well-structured, and each player has a clearly defined role to play: local authorities control the land, developers take the risk, real estate companies act as intermediaries for operators and brands - the value chain is well-oiled. But it is still necessary to bring all these links together, some of which have yet to realize the scale of the sector.
While the “hard core” of hotel development has long since taken up residence in Cannes, it is now expanding in concentric circles to include new players who can provide the resources that are lacking in the drive to increase supply.
The real estate environment has been and remains gloomy in many areas of our business, whether residential or commercial. The glow is brighter for the hospitality sector, which has demonstrated not only its resilience in the face of successive crises, but also the persistence of an almost unhoped-for return on investment in a period of weak economic growth.
Cetelem's recent consumer barometer confirms the bright future of our sector. In a rather stable trend in consumption levels, possession is giving way to use and hedonistic research. The expenses that give consumers the most pleasure, and for which they seem least prepared to make sacrifices, are travel and leisure. From being marginal, these purchases have become essential, no doubt to compensate for the prevailing gloom.
It's in this rather favorable environment that hospitality plays its best card. It's the ideal terrain for new experiences beyond simple accommodation. The message is getting through to developers. It seems to have been heard by investors.
Isn't hospitality - in the sense of bringing content to assets - the future of real estate?
We look forward to seeing you at the next edition, in early March 2026, for even more connections between mainstream real estate and our beautiful sector!
Be sure to check out the interviews conducted for MIPIM 2025, where hospitality has the wind in its sails.
Session 2, Leasing and contractualization
Session 3: Blackpool, Porto and Ostrava
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