L&G expands suburban BTR with trio of director hires

Legal & General’s suburban build-to-rent arm has hired three residential heavyweights to its leadership team as it prepares for rapid expansion. It has recruited Grainger’s Tom Henry as investment director, Catherine Hipperson from Savills as operations director and Jane Sullivan from Durkan Group as finance director, with further hires planned this year. Henry joins after more than two years as national acquisitions director at Grainger, following on from four years at LaSalle Investment Management. He has 20 years of experience in residential property, specialising in BTR. Hipperson has been a director at Savills working in BTR for eight years. Prior to this she worked at Cluttons. She will focus on property management and customer service at L&G SBTR. Henry and Hipperson will start early next month. Sullivan joined this month from construction business Durkan. She was head of corporate finance at Durkan for nearly five years, with previous role at CBRE and Peabody Trust. L&G launched the SBTR business last November, led by managing director David Reid (pictured above), with a vision to develop more than 1,000 rental homes a year from 2024. The business will focus on houses and low-rise flats in suburban locations in the regions, through partnerships and direct delivery, and is nearing its first acquisitions. Reid told EG: “Starting a business you need to have a decent idea and strategy, but then it’s all about the people, and that has been a sort of stunning focus. It’s not just about bringing in people that can trade, it’s about the whole ethos of the business. “We have been saying to the team as they come in, we have to be prepared to push the boundaries. We have to work out what is better as we go and continue to try and improve it. We won’t have all the answers at the beginning, but it’s absolutely obvious that we can do things differently to start with.” Following on from the leadership hires, Reid hopes to expand the business, growing those three divisions to find, fund and run the schemes. L&G SBTR will also recruit development roles to support direct delivery, as well as positions to support community management and sustainability. The business is currently weighing up whether it will have a purely in-house ops platform or partner with another. There is also the option to invest in other areas, for example the modular homes business. “Once we’ve got the team in place we can start to accelerate everything. There has been a small number of people thinking about this, and we are trying to create a team to move it on,” added Reid. In the four months since L&G SBTR officially launched, the rental landscape has continued its evolution. Reid notes increased competition and recognition from the government, amid the resilience of strong income and a defensive asset. And he is keen to get moving. “We talk a lot about patient capital here,” he said. “It is very patient capital, but we’re very impatient as a business, which is a good thing to try to make this positive difference.” To send feedback, e-mail emma.rosser@egi.co.uk or tweet @EmmaARosser or @estatesgazette Photo © LGIM Real Assets and Legal & General Capital