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Visitors at MIPIM had a hard time making sense of the mood at this year’s event in Cannes. As one delegate put it, market sentiment has become about as predictable as the weather. While the French Riviera can normally be counted on for producing some delightful rays of sunshine - for some of us the first of the season - this year the annual trade event got off to a woeful start with wind and rain. Thankfully, the dark clouds did make way for some glorious sunshine, but the weather pattern throughout the week was almost as skittish as the nerves of many of the delegates.

That sentiment reflects, of course, the volatility of the broader financial markets and the lending freeze which has left many property investors out in the cold. Not surprisingly, financiers kept a low profile at this year’s edition of MIPIM. And players like Pradera, which traditionally has a strong focus on Italy, Spain and other parts of southern Europe, is now, by investor demand, setting its sights on Germany.

By contrast, advisers and workout experts which already count Germany as their home base or at least, as one of their core markets, were in better spirits. Germany, rightly lauded as this year’s Country of Honour at MIPIM, is the destination of choice for investors from around the globe, as evidenced by the large number of heavyweight institutions and high net worth individuals flocking to the country. Michael Rhydderch, head of capital markets at Cushman & Wakefield, summed it up succinctly at a briefing of the firm’s International Investment Atlas when he said: ‘Germany is a proxy for core Europe.’ .

Some of the bigger investment managers and boutique firms which announced plans for new funds and alternative products were also more upbeat than others. And the spate of debt funds announced at MIPIM is a clear sign that despite all the constraints, the current market also offers opportunities. Major structural shifts are afoot in the investment management industry and there will be winners and losers as the European lending landscape changes forever.

The repercussions of broader economic trends are also becoming harder to ignore, as David Hutchings, head of research at Cushman & Wakefield, pointed out at the C&W briefing. ‘The occupier market is not about growth, it’s about change across the world. New technology is having an impact on work practices and logistics processes, also in emerging markets. Change is happening and coming. This trend will exacerbate the problem of oversupply of space.’

While the supply and volume of investment will remain dramatically constrained in Europe as the availability of real estate debt continues to shrink, Hutchings expects activity to recover after the cooldown in the second half of last year. ‘We expect things to improve in the course of this year. Investment supply will increase due to deleveraging.’ Greg Vorwaller, head of global capital markets at Cushman & Wakefield, vividly brought this forecast to life, saying the property investment industry had started 2011 like a lion, but went out like a lamb. ‘This year we started like a lamb, but will go out like a lion,’ he predicted.

There was no lack of investment recommendations in the multitude of brokers’ reports that caused the email boxes of some journalists at MIPIM to temporarily seize up. Warsaw is the second-most attractive city for investment in Europe after London, according to Colin Waddell, managing director of CBRE for Poland. Russia and Turkey offer attractive prospects for investors seeking higher returns and are an alternative to a crowded market like Poland, said Rhydderch of C&W. Indeed Russian office is the strongest in Europe, he added. And for those brave and rich enough to do it, core retail development in Europe is also a good bet, he noted.

Rhydderch's American colleague Greg Vorwaller also had an indomitable recommendation. Quoting American business tycoon Warren Buffet, he said: ‘Be wary when others are greedy and be greedy when others are afraid.’

Maybe that is the message investors should heed most as they get back to the grind after a windswept week amid partial Cannes sunshine