Proptech operating partner Immo, which deploys institutional capital into large-scale residential portfolios, has announced the appointment of Andrew Lockett as global head of asset management and Tim Lasys as head of German acquisitions.
The appointments come at a time of strategic importance for Immo, the firm said. Residential institutional investment continues to be under considered, missing lucrative opportunities to engage with long-term, large scale retrofitting projects capable of benefitting Europe’s flagging housing quality and substandard renter experience.
Lockett and Lasys join a leadership team spearheaded by co-founders Hans Christian-Zappel and Samantha Kempe, who founded Immo in 2017.
As global head of asset management, Lockett will take operational responsibility of Immo’s residential property portfolio, focused on maximising asset value through strategic oversight, ensuring strong financial returns, and supporting Immo’s expansion across European markets with a clear roadmap of scalability.
With nearly two decades of real estate and asset management expertise, Lockett brings an acute knowledge of the evolving landscape, having previously held roles at Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley, HIG Capital, and Round Hill Capital – where he was leading the delivery of the asset management strategy for portfolios with value over $4 bn across 60,000 units – as well as Aldar Properties, the UAE property developer.
Said Lockett: 'It’s an absolute pleasure to join the team at Immo. The company’s focus on connecting institutional investors with large scale residential opportunities is an exciting opportunity to make widespread changes across European housing markets.
'We need to approach housing investment differently and think strategically and intelligently about how investment strategies can benefit not just the investor, but all stakeholders.'
Lockett will work across all of the company’s markets, with an initial focus on Germany and the UK, and across key departments, including development management and Immo’s operational teams. The appointment enables Immo to target increased operational efficiency, meeting the technological and ESG-related initiatives to deliver impactful, risk-adjusted returns.
As head of German acquisitions, Lasys will work closely with CIO Kempe on the acquisition of real estate opportunities, largely residential, in Germany, a key market for Immo.
Lasys brings with him forty years of real estate experience, having held senior management roles at d.i.i, Abrdn, Commerz Real, Catella and the DZ Bank Group, among others. Working directly with Immo’s investment department, Lasys will drive the deployment of Immo’s institutional partners’ capital and support the firm's growth plans for the immediate future.
Said Lasys: 'It is Immo’s vision to facilitate larger, more lucrative, ESG-focused residential investment opportunities that attracted me to the role.
'I wholeheartedly believe the technology-led capabilities of the Immo platform, combined with the market-leading investment and real estate expertise within the company, can enable institutional investors to invest in brown-to-green opportunities whilst capitalising on this unique moment in the cycle. I am excited to join a company that has a positive vision of real estate’s future, at a time when the sector requires urgent intervention.'
During 2024, Immo has continued to grow its institutional capital partner base, as the market begins to recover, following the reduction in interest rates this year, and prepare for significant deployments over the coming months and years.
This year, the business also received a start-up grant from OpenAI through its partnership scheme. Underscoring Immo's commitment to pursuing better solutions through advanced technology, its use of API GPT has been quickly embedded into the platform's property sourcing and analytics methodologies, already resulting in over 30% reduction of manual resources.
'Tim and Andrew’s appointments come at a crucial time for Immo, when sector stakeholders, from investor to tenant, look to the innovative solutions of proptech to solve long-ingrained issues across European housing markets. We’re confident their wealth of industry knowledge and practical experience, individually and combined, can help us reach the ambitious growth targets we have in place, all of which will benefit our customers and the real estate sector at large,' said Immo CEO Zappel.
