Residential Funds Working Group Biographies

William is Chair of AREF's Residential Funds Working Group. William is a Fund Director at Thriving Investments and is responsible for the Mid-Market Rent Fund, which will build over 1,000 new affordable homes in Scotland’s key cities. He is a Planning and Development Surveyor and member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors with a background in residential development and investment. He is experienced in all aspects of planning, land acquisition and development of residential property. Prior to joining Thriving Investments, William was Development Director for Sigma Capital, one of the UKs leading investors in Single Family Homes for the private rental market. This role involved the identification, assessment and acquisition of appropriate development opportunities both for the company and for the investment funds it managed including the PRS REIT. Previous experience includes the management of a portfolio of development assets throughout Scotland and the North of England for Royal Bank of Scotland and prior to that he spent time working for both national volume and luxury regional housebuilders with a focus on the acquisition and planning process for both short term and strategic land.  

William sits on the Scottish Property Federation Residential Investment and Management Committee and also sits on the boards of Places for People Scotland and BIGG Regeneration.

Andrew became Global Head of Research, Product Strategy and Development for Savills IM in January 2021. 

In this role, Andrew is responsible for the global product strategy and development of the Savills IM business across real estate sectors, geographies and product types.

The product strategy side of his work draws on the research and insight of the business through to assessing market opportunities and client demand. The development aspect seeks to ensure product delivery is in line with business strategy.

Before joining Savills IM, Andrew worked at Aberdeen Standard Investments, where he held several senior roles and was most recently global head of Investment Research, Real Estate. From 2004 to 2010 he was Head of Research & Strategy at Cordea Savills (now Savills IM).

Andrew works for George Capital.  Prior to that he was a residential consultant for Savills Investment Management. Andrew headed up the Specialist Real Estate Funds team at Aviva Investors which included residential investment. He is also a consultant to a senior living company.

Jack is Fund Manager for the Octopus Affordable Housing Fund. He has spent over 15 years in real estate, working for housebuilders, developers, and housing associations. He is a member of the CISI and the RICS.

Oscar Kingsbury is an Executive Director and Portfolio Manager at PGIM Real Estate, based in London. 

Oscar has 14 years of real estate investment management experience, as well as significant knowledge of the residential and long-income sectors. Oscar joined from PfP Capital (now Thriving Investments), a specialist residential fund manager where he led investment into the emerging single-family housing sector. Prior to PfP Capital, Oscar was an Investment Manager at Liberty Living, a c.£2.2 billion student accommodation business with c.25,000 operational student beds located throughout the UK and Europe. During his time with the business, Liberty Living was acquired by CPP Investments and more than doubled its AUM.  To date, Oscar has transacted on over £2.6 billion of real estate assets. He is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Robert is the Fund Manager of the UK Private Rented Sector Fund and is also responsible for sourcing and delivering residential investment opportunities in the UK and Ireland for aPER, a pan-European residential fund. Robert sits on the AREF’s Residential Working and the British Property Federation Build to Rent London Engagement Group.

Robert has 21 years of experience, having joined abrdn in 2007, and has worked in the residential team since October 2016. Previously he was a Fund Manager for a Swedish corporate pension fund.

Robert graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Land Management from University of Reading. He is a qualified Chartered Surveyor (MRICS).

Jennifer began her career in property investment management at Schroders where she was fund manager for directly invested funds and multi manager portfolios on behalf of pension fund and charity clients for over 15 years. 

Prior to joining Homes England, where she leads on institutional investment initiatives within the Government’s housing delivery agency for England, Jennifer was a fund manager for Tesco Pension Investments.  Here she developed a professional interest in the residential sector as an institutional investment class while managing overseas investment strategies.

Jennifer is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Investment Property Forum.

Danielle joined DTZ Investors as a graduate in 2017 and now works as the Investment Manager on their co-living fund which invests in large-scale co-living assets and developments in London.  Danielle therefore has experience with investing, developing, and managing residential assets.  Prior to this, Danielle worked as a portfolio manager on cross-sector pension fund and local authority mandates.  She is also a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS). 

Jacqui is AREF’s Company Secretary and provides policy guidance and secretariat services to AREF’s Board and Management Committee as well as many of AREF's committees and working groups.

Jacqui joined AREF in 2014 after working for over 25 years in fund compliance, client relationships and administration in the trustee and depositary sector.