BNP Paribas Real Estate has appointed James Barrett as national head of affordable housing.
Barrett will be based in the Bristol office, and joins from Lifestory Group where he held the role of senior land manager, and was responsible for acquiring development sites across the South West for the creation of high quality later living apartments.
Prior to this, he was senior land manager (southern region) at Clarion Housing Group (CHG) where he sourced residential development sites capable of accommodating 100+ units across schemes at various stages stretching from Devon to Kent.
Barrett’s appointment is the latest within the growing national development & planning team totalling 65+ people as he rolls out the firm’s strategy to capture increasing demand for infrastructure and regeneration project support across the UK.
Tom Stanley, head of development & planning at BNP Paribas Real Estate commented: 'Since I joined the business earlier this year, I’ve been looking at ways to strategically strengthen our client offer and arm our offices with specialists in locations to best meet the demand, and to allocate headcount towards areas of growth.
'Affordable housing was subject to much discussion at the government party conferences, and what is clear is that if there is a shift in power, we could see greater allocations to councils and housing associations to provide more homes for rent.
'We are bolstering our offer in this regard with James who is renowned in his field with two decades worth of experience and a true cross-sector specialist. I have no doubt that he will lead our team to continued success.'
Barrett said: 'The demand for affordable housing has never been stronger, with over one million households currently on Local Authority waiting lists, unable to afford soaring private rents or access home ownership.
'Against this backdrop of record demand affordable housing providers continue to tackle a host of well documented challenges and the market continues to evolve with increasing investor interest in the sector. I look forward to working with Tom and the team on their client base.'
The appointment follows Charlotte Fullard joining office agency based in Birmingham, Jonty Rawcliffe being promoted to ESG and sustainability lead for property management, and James Littlewood's apointment as head of UK data transformation.
