VIDEO | What’s really going on in the residential market?

Nearly 20 years after launching our first website, we’re opening a new front door to Place – bringing our growing network of titles together and giving the North and Midlands an even bigger platform.

Since 1980, successive governments have introduced more than 60 initiatives to fix housing affordability, writes Jeremy Hinds of CivicScape. Yet 1.33m households remain on waiting lists, 176,000 children live in temporary accommodation, rents are rising and homes cost around eight times average earnings.

City centres are changing, and Newcastle is no exception. This roundtable, hosted by Eldon Square, explored how the city is evolving beyond its traditional retail role to become a destination where people come to work, socialise, experience culture, and spend time. 

The last 10 years have brought us wars, political uncertainty at home and abroad, Brexit, and a pandemic. Panellists at Place North’s Wednesday breakfast conference discussed how the sector has delivered amid the chaos and how it will continue to do so in the future. 

Jolly Harbour may not exist today, but the fictional town conjured up by those attending Place North’s Tuesday breakfast event served as a great testbed for conversations about placemaking best practice.

Leaving MIPIM behind for another year, the focus now moves on to how those conversations in Cannes translate into real projects back home, says Steven Gregory, area director of Morgan Sindall Construction.

With the dust just beginning to settle on MIPIM 2026, managing partner Dino Moutsopoulos joined deputy editor Dan Whelan to look back on a busy week of networking events, interactive panels, and front-line news and ponder what next year has in store for the North of England and Scotland when their delegations return to Cannes.

The UK’s renewed focus on new towns is prompting fresh debate about how to create places that thrive for generations. At a panel session hosted by Place North, industry leaders were tasked with a thought experiment: how would they design a settlement from scratch?

This panel session explored how the North’s combination of land, skills, and collaboration gives it a compelling edge in the I&L sector, despite persistent challenges.