The Urban Land Institute’s annual UK Capital Markets Forum took place on 2nd September at PATRIZIA’s hub in Covent Garden. With a record attendance of over 140 delegates in the room, the evening was filled with lively discussion, intriguing and candid insights from the panellists, and a prolonged Q&A with the audience.

James Muir from PATRIZIA gave a warm welcome to guests as he walked us through the history of the award-winning office that is PATRIZIA’s international headquarters. The Victorian building had originally been a hospital and more recently a private members club founded by the Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and the musician Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics.

The Capital Markets Forum is usually preceded by a roundtable to discuss the latest trends and future outlook for UK capital markets. This year, as the ULI European conference took place in London in June, the conclusions of the European conference capital markets roundtable were used as the starting point for the forum.

John Forbes presented the key conclusions of the June roundtable, covering: 

• Geopolitics and macro trends; 

• Capital flows; 

• Market dynamics.

You can find the presentation here.

This was followed by a panel discussion of what this might mean for the UK, featuring: 

• James Jacobs, Managing Director, Private Capital Advisory, Lazard (moderator) 

• Tom Lloyd-Jones, Chief Investment Officer, Zenzic Capital 

• Jenny Buck, Chief Investment Officer, London CIV

• Roger Orf, former vice-chairman of Apollo Global Management 

• Jay Kwan, Managing Director, Head of Europe, International Real Estate, QuadReal Property Group

The panel discussed many topics under Chatham House rules, being quite open about the state of the market, current perspectives:

• There was a long discussion of the role of real estate in an investment portfolio. Making the case for real estate is challenging with yields on 30 year gilts at a 27-year high.

• There remains a strong interest in investment in housing, in the UK and internationally, driven by long-term undersupply and the UK looking more like a ‘safe haven’ for pension funds and long-term capital. However, there were significant concerns over affordability and the capacity for rents to keep rising.

• Real estate is increasingly competing with infrastructure for capital, suggesting a shift in how investors view asset classes. ‘Real Assets’ is likely to be the new buzzword that unlocks capital deployment, and is likely to also drive forward investment into murkily-defined areas such as social infrastructure (surgeries, healthcare, etc) and data centres. It was even discussed how social housing might end up fitting into this grey area going forward.  

• A growing emphasis on specialisation is shaping investment strategies, possibly favouring niche sectors or focused expertise. 

• Despite reassessment, limited liquidity in real estate makes it difficult to pivot quickly. Large institutional investors are often locked into their positions. And many institutions have substantial real estate holdings and limited flexibility—“they’ve made their bed and have to sleep in it.” 

You can find the full gallery of photos from the evening here. 

And to get further involved in our ULI UK and global capital markets programmes, please join our membership and book your space at our upcoming 2025 REIT Seminar.