Agent Knight Frank has hired Jonny Stevenson as the new head of its Build to Rent team.
The appointment comes as Knight Frank’s former head of Build to Rent, Peter Wyatt, leaves the firm to join Pitmore.
Stevenson has 18 years of experience, including leading acquisitions and development for self storage titan Access Storage Solutions. He was head of acquisition and development at the company, overseeing residential, industrial and office led-projects until the end of 2019.
More recently he was a director at Leon Capital, where he focused on identifying, acquiring and scaling the BTR and logistics portfolio. Stevenson will lead a team of nine within the residential capital markets team, supporting developers and investors in brokering forward funding deals, as well as acquiring and disposing of stabilised assets.
Nick Pleydell-Bouverie, head of Residential Capital Markets at Knight Frank, which includes the Build to Rent team, said: ‘Jonny joins at a very exciting time for the UK’s Build to Rent sector. Despite wider market challenges, we’re coming off the back of a record year in 2020, with many of the biggest funds, developers and operators looking to significantly increase their exposure in 2021 and beyond.’
Knight Frank’s latest research suggests that there is around £42 bn waiting to be deployed into the Residential Investment sector over the next four years. ‘We are rapidly growing our teams to support this demand,’ added Pleydell-Bouverie.