A bit needy?

"You can't always get what you want . . ." is perhaps one of The Rolling Stones' most quoted lyrics, a truism that will be familiar to any parent dealing with a demanding child. But what's more often forgotten is how that song's chorus finishes: ". . . you get what you need."

If desire is one of the great drivers of demand for real estate, it has a more matter-of-fact cousin in need. For every choice that is made due to the emotional response a place creates, there is a hard-headed decision based upon needing a certain amount of space, of a certain grade in a certain location. And as the last few weeks of geopolitical activity has shown, the drivers for this are often at a macro level.

Industrial real estate's journey from stable-but-boring to must-have portfolio allocation has been well documented. But while in hindsight this shift looks inexorable, it is notable how the sector has surfed a number of different waves, each of which has markedly increased occupier need for logistics space.

The online retail revolution was followed by Brexit, after which came the pandemic, Ukraine war and now crisis in the Gulf. All of these events saw a reshaping and stretching of supply chains, and with each shock came a need for greater resilience. At a basic level, that means having more stock in storage - good news if you're the owner of warehouse space.

Rising defence requirements is a similar driver of need in the sector, something that was a prominent talking point in the MIPIM panel session hosted by Innesco's Dan Innes. Dan himself pointed to a feeling at MIPIM of pragmatism, a sense that people know the world has shifted and that they were getting on with responding to it.

Not all sectors are quite as prosaic as logistics, but the effects of need are felt across all of real estate. Investment and leasing decisions in offices, retail, living, hotels and alternatives are all in part underpinned by a complex interplay between need and desire. And that is one of the wonders of the market: different players will have different requirements and emotional responses, but somehow this is distilled into rents and an allocation of resources that reflect overall demand.

Perhaps the big difference between these two factors is what real estate can influence. If need is often determined by external shifts, desire can be generated and shaped through investment, branding and placemaking. They are both vital, and reliant on eachother, but if creating desire is proactive then catering to need is by its nature often reactive. To go against The Rolling Stones' claims, it is up to property to give the people both what they need and what they want.