Financing Real Estate and Navigating the ESG Journey 2026: Where is the Industry Currently at?

Sonam Thakrar has 10 years of experience within the real estate finance sector.
Sonam currently works at M&G Real Estate as part of the Debt Strategy and Origination team as an Associate Director. She joined MGRE 6.5 years ago and her role entails raising new debt financing on behalf of M&G Real Estate managed Funds and separate accounts business across both UK and Europe and managing the existing loan portfolio.

Prior to that, Sonam worked for Patrizia & formerly, Rockspring Property Investment Managers for 3 years. Sonam began her career working within the hedging and derivatives business at Sernova Financial. Sonam graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a BA (Hons) in Economics.
 

Sam is the Head of Sustainability in CBRE's Valuations and Advisory Services team, appointed to integrate ESG metrics into property valuations. He works with CBRE's valuations clients to understand the implications of ESG risks, as well as support market analysis of the impact of sustainability on asset value. He is particularly passionate about how to promote engagement between stakeholders across the property lifecycle to decarbonise buildings.  

Previously Sam was Director of Sustainability at Carbon Intelligence (formerly Carbon Credentials), advising real estate clients on the integration of ESG within property portfolios. During this time, he engaged widely across the real estate industry including sitting on the GRESB European Benchmark Committee, UKGBC Future Leadership Forum Advisory Board and BBP REEB Benchmark Committee. He also supported the UKGBC's Advancing Net Zero programme by participating in the Net Zero Carbon Task Group, Energy Performance in Offices Task Group, Renewable Energy Procurement and Offsetting Task Group and as a co-author of their "Scope 3 Guide for Commercial Real Estate".

Olivier Elamine is the founder of Terra Augury Ltd, a strategic advisory firm focused on board stewardship and capital counsel in real estate, and Senior Advisor to alstria, the Hamburg-based German office company he co-founded in 2006 and led as CEO for nearly two decades until January 2026.

Throughout his tenure at alstria, Olivier placed sustainability at the core of the company’s strategy, building one of Europe’s most ESG-forward listed real estate platforms.  He is perhaps best known for coining the phrase “The most sustainable building is the one that was never built” — a provocation that challenged the real estate industry to rethink its default assumption that new construction is progress, and to prioritise the adaptive reuse and decarbonisation of existing stock instead.

He served as Chairman of the EPRA Sustainability Committee and contributed to the EPRA Reporting and Accounting Committee, playing a key role in shaping pan-European standards for ESG transparency and non-financial reporting in the real estate sector.
A defining moment of his leadership was navigating alstria’s transition from a publicly listed REIT to a Brookfield-owned platform following the Canadian asset manager’s €3.5 billion takeover in 2022 — a process Olivier framed around the acceleration of ESG-compliant capital investment and the decarbonisation of the office portfolio.  He guided alstria through this ownership change while maintaining the company’s long-term, sustainability-first philosophy, prioritising ESG-driven refurbishment and repositioning of its German office assets.

Today, through Terra Augury Ltd, Olivier brings this unique combination of operational depth, ESG expertise, and capital markets experience to boards and organisations navigating complex real estate and sustainability challenges.

In his role as Head of Lending in the Barclays Real Estate team, Dave is responsible for the teams who structure, document and asset manage the externally documented loans that we provide to our clients.  Dave has worked 22 years in Barclays, principally in Debt Structuring roles across Corporate and Investment banking businesses, with particular focus on larger listed and private equity backed groups.