Drawing record numbers, the third annual CED-Invest conference took place May 29 at the Gerbeaud House in Budapest. Expanded to a full day of panels for the first time, the conference featured some of the top real estate professionals in the industry in discussions that covered the redevelopment of Budapest, the current residential market and the new search for value.

Much of the day was devoted to the redevelopment of long-neglected corners of Hungary's capital city, particularly in the first panel focusing on the city's southern districts, which featured Budapest's chief architect Éva Beleznay, Bruno Machado (Öböl XI), José Luis Moreno Alcaniz (Fadesa) and Robert Snow (GTC Hungary and GTC Serbia). While all the panelists felt that the city's southern districts have the potential to develop into a new city center – with Snow comparing the area to London's Docklands development – Beleznay stressed it won't happen without the help of the private sector.

Panelists also brought up the issue of high-rise development, a contentious issue that was revisited in a later panel by Mads Mandrup Hansen (C. F. Moller Architects), Heinz Neumann (Neumann & Partners), Manuel Blanco-Longueira (Blanco-Longueira Architecture) and moderator András Sütő (NAOS). All panelists were in favor of introducing high-rises to Budapest, with Neumann saying they bring the necessary density to growing cities. Hansen added that high-rises can help decrease carbon footprints, but said that investing in infrastructure was key to their development. He suggested that deciding what type of skyscrapers to allow, and where to allow them, was part of a re-thinking of how we look at cities.

The morning session was rounded out by a discussion about railway station development, with Heinrich Christoph Augustin (ECE Projektmanagement Budapest), Pál Baross (ING Real Estate), Balázs Bella (MÁV), Jiří Prášil (Orco Project Management) and Tibor Tatár (Futureal Development). Moderated by Ákos Mester (Squire, Sanders & Dempsey), the speakers generally agreed that these well-located properties are prime development zones, but should be commercially developed to take advantage of the foot traffic flowing through these busy sites.

The afternoon started out with the residential panel, with speakers Ferenc Aradi (Autóker Holding), Marco Liello (SPQRE), Pál Moskovits (Otthon Centrum Project Consulting) and moderated by Robert McLean (RMPG). The developers noted that sales in Budapest's residential market are down as much as 50 percent in some cases. Most blamed the drop on credit troubles abroad, as foreign investors find it harder to get mortgages. But the consensus was that this has led to an increase in quality, with many buyers now preferring, on average, larger flats.

In the next discussion on the new search for value, it quickly became clear that most speakers felt that the credit crunch was nowhere near over. Moderated by Ádám Reisz (Whitestone Investment), panelists Chris Bennett (Europa Emerging Fund), Katalin Dévald (Linklaters), Christopher Naylor (Mosaic Property), Csaba Széll (Europolis) and Hamish White (Colliers International) varied in their prediction over when the financial turmoil would end, but agreed that a serious deal on the market would indicate a good first step.

The final panel, moderated by Ádám Kaplonyi (Salans), brought the focus back to redevelopment, with a focus on the revitalization of downtown Budapest. The speakers noted that parts of the downtown have been neglected, and agreed the area needed a long-term plan that would develop the center into a 24/7. mixed-use destination. The speakers were Nóra Demeter (Zoboki Demeter És Társaik), András Elekes (Immobilia), Iain Sellers (Orco Property Group) and János Tiba (Tiba Építész Stúdió).