Insights

Centrus expands equity credentials with new Head of Real Estate

News
04/04/2021

Centrus has appointed a new Head of Real Estate, Omer Fazal, who joins from CBRE’s real estate investment banking team.

Omer’s arrival is part of a wider strategy underway at Centrus to grow its offering across residential, healthcare and operating real estate companies with a focus on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and equity capital raising services. Given Centrus’ market-leading position in the affordable housing sector in the UK and Ireland, this will be a key area of focus, in particular working with a range of affordable housing providers and developers to diversify sources of funding by accessing long-term, institutional equity capital.

The appointment comes at a time where there is an increasing level of interest from institutional capital in the affordable residential sector in the UK given its secure, low-risk income profile and potential for growth with positive demand drivers and a constrained supply of good quality, affordable and professionally managed homes. In addition, the investor market is also attracted by the affordable housing sector’s very strong ESG characteristics, highlighted by the new widely adopted Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing, which was published last year following a project initiated by Centrus and Peadbody.

“We are very pleased to welcome Omer to the Centrus team. This is a key part of an on-going strategy to build out our equity offering alongside our traditionally strong debt capabilities so that we can provide services to our clients right across the capital structure. As well as adding to our existing footprint in residential and social infrastructure, Omer’s focus on operational real estate will take us into another key real assets market.”

Phil Jenkins, Managing Director – Centrus

“This is an exciting time to be joining Centrus which is a clear market leader for Real Assets advisory across essential services sectors. With the ever-increasing demand from institutional investors for resilient income from robust business models, Centrus is in a unique place to provide differentiated, independent advice across residential, alternative and operational real estate sectors.”

Omer Fazal, Head of Real Estate – Centrus