US real estate investor CA Ventures has strengthened its London-based European operations with the hire of Christian Davis as new vice president of acquisitions.
Davis will assist the firm with sourcing and executing purpose-built student housing and private-rented PRS transactions throughout the UK.
He began his career as a corporate real estate consultant with Cushman Wakefield, formerly DTZ. For the past several years, he has specialised in the acquisition and development of student and build-to-rent communities – working first as development and transaction director with Threesixty Developments, an early developer of student housing communities in the UK, and most recently as transactions director with Watkin Jones Group.
The hire coincides with CA Ventures’ planned $500 mln (€430 mln) investment in the European housing market. In July, the firm appointed Carlo Matta as head of the European division, which is currently developing two student housing communities each in the UK and Poland and is in active negotiations to acquire additional properties and development sites throughout the UK, as well as in other European countries including Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Italy.
Chicago-based CA Ventures targets both consented and unconsented schemes for development in addition to stalled for-sale schemes considering conversion to rental. The firm is seeking joint venture partners and offering broker incentives to source new investment opportunities.
