The meeting brought together over 300 guests to attend in person and many more participated online. More than 80 elite representatives of the industry joined the audience as speakers to outlook the future of real estate industry.

After a relaxed breakfast, the meeting moderator and Executive Director of ULI China Mainland, Mr. Kenneth Rhee, announced the official start of the 2021 ULI Mainland China Winter Meeting in Shanghai at 9:00 a.m. Mr. Khoo Teng Chye ULI Asia Pacific Chair and Senior Researcher of the Centre for Liveable Cities, the Ministry of National Development, Singapore, reflected on ULI’s development in Mainland China through a video and conveyed his expectations for the meeting.

Then the agenda of the meeting was officially kicked off. First, Mr. Hei Ming Cheng, Founder and Chairman of Kailong and Chairman of ULI China Mainland, interviewed Peter Ballon, Head of Global Real Estate Business of CPP Investment and ULI Global Chair, who shared his views with the audience on ULI’s mission, vision, focus, the global impact of the Covid-19, and future opportunities.

Jun Zhang, Managing Director, Chief Economist and Head of Research of Morgan Stanley Securities (China) Limited, on the other hand, reviewed and analyzed the global and Chinese economic development after the epidemic broke out in 2019, and provided an outlook on the global and Chinese economy in 2022.

Shaun Brodie, Senior Director and Head of Greater China Tenant Research at Cushman & Wakefield, shared a keynote speech on “China’s 14th Five-Year Plan – Outlooking the Future of Real Estate”, with “SMART” being the keyword repeatedly mentioned in his speech.

Then, there came the dialogue session which commenced with “Dialogue with CEOs of Real Estate Developers” as the first round. The session was moderated by Yao Yao, Executive Director and Director of JLL China Research. Chengwei Wang, Executive Director of Hon Kwok Land Investment, Jesper Jos Olsson, President and Founding Partner of White Peak, and Stuart Mercier, Head of Asia Real Estate and Managing Director of Brookfield, shared their companies’ business and discussed the future trends of real estate.

Duan Lihua, Partner of DLA Piper moderated the second round themed “Perspectives of Investors”. Rushabh Desai, Asia Pacific CEO of Allianz Real Estate, Meng Chunying, Director of Investment Business of China Life Investment Management Co, Ltd., and Johnny Adji, CFA and Senior Investment Director of Cambridge Associates participated online and shared their views on investment opportunities and how they are addressing priorities such as ESG.

Highlights in Concurrent Sessions

At 1:30 pm, the agenda continued in form of six parallel sessions: “Long-term Rental Apartments”, “Proptech Investment”, “Bioscience Property Assets”, “Debt and Alternative Financing”, “Landmark Development”, and “Urban Renewal”. The guests shared from their own practice areas the actual cases and experiences of their companies and their outlook on future trends.

After a short tea break, there came the last part of the agenda moderated by Bei Wang, Managing Director of China Capital Markets and Investment Services of Colliers. The moderator invited several guests to discuss the investment opportunities in value-added properties, including Mr. Hei Ming Cheng, Founder and Chairman of Kailong, Jingwei Huang, Head of China Real Estate Business of Schroders Group, Qingbang Peng, Managing Partner and Head of China of Gaw Capital, and Lingyan Shi, Managing Director of LaSalle.

The first meeting day of the Winter Meeting came to an end after a “Fireside Chat with Industry Leaders” moderated by Hanbin Xu, Co-Founder and CEO of Forest Logistics, and joined by Bingze Zheng, President and Managing Director of Chongbang Group.

Annual sponsors, event sponsors, some corporate member representatives and speakers participated the leaders’ dinner in the evening to continue the in-depth communication and discussion in a lively atmosphere.