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IHM’s editor-in-chief George Sell, hospitality editor Eloise Hanson, and short-term rentals editor Priya Khaira, spotlight leading figures across real estate and hospitality who are set to have a big year ahead.
Brand
Justine Edmonds, Apo Group (GS)
Apo Group has appointed Justine Edmonds as managing director, tasking her with leading the operating platform’s growth. Edmonds arrives with more than 20 years’ experience in UK residential property, most recently at LRG, where as director she held national responsibility for the Living Markets strategy across single-family housing and multifamily portfolios, working directly with institutional investors on capital deployment, operating models and platform growth.
She took up her new role this month, and arrives fluent in the policy conversations shaping the living sector, thanks to her time on the British Property Federation’s Build to Rent Committee. “I’m delighted to be joining Apo at such an exciting time for the business,” said Edmonds, adding that the company is perfectly placed to meet growing demand through its expertise spanning investment advisory, finance, customer operations, safety and compliance, and development.
Apo, owned by Broadsword Investment Management since 2024, manages portfolios including Invesco Real Estate’s Kew Bridge and Barking Wharf schemes, and is growing its reputation as an operating partner. Edmonds’ cross-tenure experience in single-family and multifamily housing makes her a shrewd hire, and one to watch as Apo widens its remit across the living sectors.
Johnny Langton, ?? (GS)
A new residential platform – as yet unnamed, hence the question marks – has strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of Johnny Langton as head of operations. The platform was founded by Tim Butler, with backing from AustralianSuper, Australia’s largest pension fund. It has launched with an initial £500 million of institutional investment and ambitions to become one of the UK’s top five rental home operators within five years, spanning PBSA, coliving and BTR.
Langton joins from Greystar, where he spent more than 12 years across build-to-rent and student accommodation, and previously served as interim managing director at Student Roost, helping steer its integration and scaling following acquisition, experience that dovetails neatly with Butler’s own history as founder of Student Roost and a founding shareholder of Unite Group.
That pedigree will come in handy – AustralianSuper wants a platform capable of institutional-grade delivery from day one, and has made its first acquisitions – PBSA scheme across seven UK cities. With £500 million to deploy at pace over the platform’s first year, and serious operational nous now in place, expect Langton’s profile to grow as the platform’s pipeline takes shape.
Karim Malak, The Boost Society (GS)
BNP Paribas Asset Management Alts has appointed Karim Malak as chief executive of The Boost Society, its PBSA division, at a pivotal moment for European student housing. Founded in 2014 and backed by shareholders including AXA and Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, The Boost Society develops new-build and fully renovated residences under the KLEY and Hife brands across France and Spain.
Intriguingly, Malak’s career sits at the intersection of strategy consulting and hospitality operations: spells at BCG and Accenture were followed by leading the international expansion of Adagio Aparthotels and a stint as chief executive of easyHotel. That combination of commercial rigour and operational scale is exactly what BNPP AM Alts is betting on. Timothée Rauly, the firm’s global co-head of real estate, said Malak’s track record of leading ambitious transformations and scaling businesses across Europe would prove invaluable to The Boost Society’s next stage of growth.
Malak himself has set out his intent to strengthen The Boost Society’s position as a European leader in student real estate, with the platform targeting €3 billion in assets within five years, and France and Spain as priority markets. With Europe’s PBSA sector still chronically undersupplied, Malak’s hybrid hospitality and coliving model, aimed at students and young professionals, looks well timed to capture demand.
Joe Riley, Casago (PK)
Joe Riley is preparing to take charge of one of the world’s largest vacation rental management groups, Casago. Riley is currently the president of Casago and will succeed founder Steve Schwab in October 2026.
His appointment follows Casago’s $128 million acquisition of Vacasa in May 2025. The transaction combined Casago’s locally operated franchise model with one of North America’s largest vacation rental portfolios.
With a master’s degree and a PhD in International Relations from the University of Oxford under his belt, Riley formerly founded Patriot Family Homes, a veteran-owned property management company focused on short-term rentals near military bases. The move followed his former position as the director for Indo-Pacific Security for the National Security Council, The White House. He joined Casago as president in September 2024 and played a leading role in the Vacasa transaction.
Development
Preet Alhuwalia, Dominus Group (EH)
Dominus was launched in 2011 by founder Sukhpal Ahluwalia, whose son Preet has been leading the business as CEO alongside brothers and principal directors Husnall and Jay. During this time, the company has developed 15 hotels totalling more than 4,000 keys – the most recent being The Derby London City, which transformed a 20th-century bank into a 237-room boutique hotel.
In March 2025, Ahluwalia expanded the company’s core development business into operations with the introduction of in-house management platform Dominus Hospitality. Five hotels within the portfolio – The Derby, The Dixon, Lost Property, and Hampton by Hilton in Bath and London – are owned by Dominus, and now operated internally too.
In June 2025, the company also completed its first student housing development at Talgarth Road in Hammersmith, London. A further two student schemes are underway in the city, located along Crutched Friars and Holborn Viaduct. By diversifying into large-scale urban developments while simultaneously bringing operational control of hospitality assets in-house, Ahluwalia is positioning Dominus as an agile, vertically-integrated market leader.
Vanessa Hale, Real Estate:UK (GS)
Vanessa Hale has been appointed as the first chief executive of Real Estate:UK, the new body formed from the merger of the Association of Real Estate Funds, the British Property Federation and the Investment Property Forum, following a unanimous vote across the three organisations’ memberships to create a single voice for the UK real estate sector.
Hale joins from BNP Paribas Real Estate, where she was head of research and strategy and a member of the UK executive leadership team, and is now tasked with making that unified voice count. She brings more than 20 years of global research and strategy experience across BTR, office, retail and industrial assets. She was the youngest-ever chair of ULI UK, forging relationships with government and media.
Real Estate:UK’s work will span six pillars: advocacy; research and data; thought leadership and innovation; networking and events; upskilling and training; and standards and guidance. Hale has already argued publicly that the case for investing in UK real estate has not been stronger since the Second World War, and that the organisation’s role is to act as a convener for the whole industry. With institutional and private capital alike hunting for a clearer policy voice, Hale’s first year in the job will be closely watched. While not a developer herself, the development community will be counting on her.
Simon Ismail, Salboy (EH)
Ismail co-founded Salboy alongside billionaire Betfred founder Fred Done in 2014. The property development and real estate investment company is headquartered in Salford, Manchester, and has delivered over 4,000 homes across more than 70 sites in the UK, backed by a pipeline exceeding £1 billion. The firm’s portfolio ranges from branded residences, city-centre apartments and family homes, including the high-rise Fifty5ive residential development, mixed-use skyscraper Viadux, and the 43-storey W Hotel & Residences at St Michael’s in Manchester.
Alongside core development, Ismail has built a fully integrated ecosystem: Salboy Capital provides mezzanine debt and equity financing for third-party UK property developers; Salboy International handles direct sales and marketing; long-standing partner Domis provides main contracting; and Salboy Construction officially launched earlier this year to resolve stalled and time-critical housing schemes across the UK.
Beyond this, Ismail has spearheaded Salboy’s growth into high-end hospitality. Hidden, Salboy’s boutique aparthotel brand, has debuted in St. Ives, Cornwall, with plans to roll out the concept throughout the UK. It solidifies Ismail’s transformation of Salboy from a regional residential developer into a major force across UK real estate and lifestyle hospitality.
Joe Lister, Unite Students (GS)
Joe Lister has spent almost 23 years rising through the ranks at Unite Students, becoming CFO, then chief executive of the UK’s largest student accommodation provider in January 2024. This year is proving the toughest test yet of that CFO-to-CEO transition.
Unite recorded a £417 million pre-tax loss for the first half of the year, against a £186 million profit for the same period in 2025, hit by a £500 million revaluation of its property portfolio and what the company called “extremely challenging” build costs.
Lister’s response has been decisive: a sharper focus on the UK’s top 20 student cities, more than £300 million of asset disposals planned this year, and between 15,000 and 20,000 units identified for sale as Unite exits nine non-core cities. The market is watching closely: Canada Pension Plan Investment Board has cut its Unite stake from 14 per cent to seven per cent, with CPP’s Tom Jackson stepping down as a non-executive director.
How Lister steers the sector’s biggest operator through this repositioning, while holding investor confidence, will shape sentiment across UK PBSA more broadly. Having previously offered advice to first-time chief executives about the need to “get match fit” Lister will need every bit of that conditioning this coming year.
Aneel Mussarat, MCR Property Group (EH)
Mussarat built his career in UK real estate, having established the Classic Homes property development company in Manchester, 1989. The firm initially grew through residential and student housing projects before expanding into commercial office blocks, eventually being absorbed into the MCR Property Group.
Today, the group’s portfolio spans six sectors – its most recent entry being hospitality. In April 2026, Mussarat deployed £150 million into a central London portfolio now known as The Kensington Collection. The sites were previously operated by Maykenbel and include serviced apartments and boutique hotel rooms.
Later this year, MCR plans to introduce a wider hospitality platform to support a broader pipeline of hotels and extended-stay properties in the UK and internationally. It marks a major step in Mussarat’s vision to transform MCR Property Group into a globally recognised, multi-asset power house.
Jonathan Seal, Arada London (GS)
Few figures in UK development will have a bigger year than Jonathan Seal, chief executive of Arada London, the new name for Regal London after its acquisition by UAE developer Arada. The ambition is bold: Arada London plans to triple its pipeline to more than 30,000 units within three years, and Seal has wasted no time backing it up with deals.
Arada has acquired an 80 per cent stake in the £2.5 billion Thameside West mixed-use scheme in the Royal Docks, masterplanned by Foster + Partners and set to deliver at least 5,000 homes. He also completed a third major UK acquisition in as many months with the addition of a regeneration site at 99-101 Newington Causeway in Southwark, formerly home to the Salvation Army UK.
Arada London has also submitted plans for a PBSA and affordable housing scheme in Peckham, comprising 516 student beds and 55 social rent homes, and is preparing to seek consent for its first coliving project and a hotel in the capital. Seal has been vocal about what needs to change to get Britain building again, calling for more lending to first-time buyers and planning reform. With that scale of ambition, Seal’s Arada London will be hard to miss over the next 12 months.
Entrepreneurs
Eric Jafari, AENDRE Group (EH)
Born in Los Angeles, raised in Paris, and living in London, Eric Jafari has repeatedly built and scaled hospitality concepts. His founder-led approach has seen the creation of brands including Locke, Birch, and Urban Villa, while driving a collective track record of over £2 billion in European developments alongside AENDRE co-founder Chris Strong.
Today, as managing director of AENDRE, Jafari is focussed on the repositioning of The Other House portfolio in London. As part of a joint venture with One Investment Management and Lifestyle Hospitality Capital, AENDRE is transforming the three assets (representing 587 keys) into a new luxury wellness brand. Covent Garden, which will undergo a refurbishment, is scheduled to be the first opening in the rebranded portfolio next year. South Kensington will follow, with Belgravia subsequently opening as a new-build development.
Backed by early-stage seeding from JuneX Capital Partners and New End Associates, the brand launch marks AENDRE’s first major rollout since Jafari co-founded the firm in 2024. It reflects the exact convergence of vision, execution, and institutional backing that defines Jafari’s career.
Ritwik Khare, ELIVAAS (PK)
Ritwik Khare is positioning ELIVAAS at the front of India’s quickly growing professionally managed villa sector. The former MakeMyTrip executive co-founded the company in 2023 to provide luxury vacation rentals for guests while helping second-home owners generate income from their properties.
ELIVAAS raised approximately $10.4 million in August 2025 in a Series B round led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, with continued backing from Peak XV Partners’ Surge and 3one4 Capital. This followed a $5 million Series A completed in 2024.
The company currently operates around 670 villas and is aiming to reach 1,200 by the end of 2026. It provides owners with services spanning property operations, maintenance, positioning and revenue optimisation. ELIVAAS is now evaluating another funding round to support its expansion. Its growth comes as second-home ownership rises in India and more owners look beyond capital appreciation towards professionally managed rental income.
Justine Palefsky, Kindred (PK)
Justine Palefsky is helping move home swapping from a niche travel behaviour towards a mainstream accommodation category. She co-founded Kindred in 2021, creating a members-only network through which travellers exchange stays in their primary homes.
In February, Kindred announced $125 million across two funding rounds, comprising a $40 million Series B co-led by NEA and Figma and an $85 million Series C led by Index Ventures. The investment takes the company’s total funding to more than $150 million. Kindred said it has grown to almost 300,000 members across more than 150 cities, adding approximately 150,000 members during 2025. Its community has hosted nearly 350,000 nights, with London, Paris, Barcelona, New York and Los Angeles among its most popular destinations.
Under Palefsky’s leadership, Kindred is moving from a single home-swapping community into a network of interconnected groups, allowing members to exchange homes through friends, existing communities and other trusted connections. The company will also invest in its product and trust-and-safety infrastructure.
Constantin Schröder, Arbio (PK)
Constantin Schröder has pursued a distinctive growth strategy in the STR sector. As the co-founder and CEO of Arbio, he has combined an AI-native operating platform with the acquisition of traditional property management companies across Europe.
Founded in Berlin in 2022 by Schröder and Paul Bäumler, Arbio automates functions including guest communication, pricing, distribution and accounting. Rather than selling this technology to operators, the company uses it to manage and integrate the businesses it acquires. Arbio raised $36 million in Series A funding in October 2025, bringing its total capital raised to more than $45 million. The round was led by Eurazeo, with participation from OpenOcean, Atlantic Labs and several angel investors from the technology and travel sectors.
The company has completed more than 30 acquisitions, grown tenfold in two years and manages more than 1,000 units across the DACH region. Its next phase will involve expanding further across Europe’s highly fragmented holiday rental market.
Roy Shaby, Tradestars (GS)
Roy Shaby’s route into real estate began, unusually, in a rented kebab shop kitchen. He co-founded FoodStars, an early dark kitchen platform, which was acquired by CloudKitchens, a venture backed by former Uber boss Travis Kalanick.
Shaby took those lessons in operational, customer-first real estate and applied them to workspace, founding Tradestars, London’s coolest workspace brand, and built for what its founder calls the TikTok economy: sellers, beauty entrepreneurs, barbers, tattoo artists and production companies who acquire customers online but still need professional physical space to create content, meet clients and run logistics.
Rather than starting with a spreadsheet, Tradestars starts with the end user and reverse-engineers the real estate around them, offering diversified membership across studios, and flexible terms designed to grow or shrink with each member’s business. Speaking to Urban Living News on the Urban Living Lens podcast, Shaby discussed the ambition and hard graft, and the occasional spot of gardening, behind building a category-defining brand from scratch. With flex space continuing to eat into conventional office and retail demand, expect Tradestars, and Shaby, to keep expanding fast.
Finance
Hani Ahmad Barhoush, Mudabala Capital (PK)
Hani Ahmad Barhoush is overseeing Mubadala Capital’s proposed acquisition of Pierre & Vacances, one of Europe’s leading leisure and hospitality groups. As managing director and CEO of Mubadala Capital, the asset management subsidiary of Abu Dhabi sovereign investor Mubadala he oversees the firm’s global investment and operational activities.
In June, Mubadala Capital submitted a fully financed binding offer for Pierre & Vacances in a transaction reported to carry an enterprise value of approximately €900 million.The European leisure operator manages around 45,000 units across resort villages, holiday residences and urban aparthotels through brands including Center Parcs, Pierre & Vacances and Adagio.
The transaction moved forward in July when Mubadala Capital and Pierre & Vacances signed a tender offer agreement. Shareholders representing 80.13 per cent of the company’s capital have committed to support the offer, exceeding the threshold required for the deal to progress. The offer is expected to be formally filed by the first quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory and shareholder conditions.
If completed, the acquisition would give Pierre & Vacances the long-term backing to invest further in its destinations, premiumise its accommodation and continue its Beyond ReInvention growth strategy. The proposed takeover underlines the appeal of European resort and experience-led accommodation to Middle Eastern institutional capital.
Simon Century, National Housing Bank (GS)
Homes England has officially launched the National Housing Bank under chief executive Simon Century, with a mandate to support delivery of up to 500,000 new homes by deploying up to £16 billion of debt, equity and guarantees.
Headquartered in Leeds, the bank burst quickly out of the traps, announcing a new £100 million partnership with Aviva aimed at delivering 3,300 homes, followed by a £100 million equity commitment to Long Harbour’s Single Family Housing Fund and a cornerstone £100 million investment in Starlight UK’s Build-to-Rent Fund II, which will develop professionally managed rental housing in structurally undersupplied regional markets.
Century has been characteristically blunt about the scale of the challenge, pointing to a housing shortfall of three to five million homes built up over 30 to 40 years, and urging housing associations to stop deliberating and “lean to the left” on tough calls around risk, assets and debt structuring rather than sit on their hands.
He has also signalled the bank’s openness to backing new entrants alongside established providers, provided the regulation and long-term commitment stack up. With £16 billion to deploy over the next decade, Century’s bank, and his willingness to move fast, will be central to whether the government gets anywhere near its housing targets.
Simon Ellis, M&G Real Estate (EH)
With over 18 years of experience in investment and asset management across continental European commercial real estate, Simon Ellis has played a key role in driving the growth of M&G’s €4.5 billion flagship European property fund.
Having joined M&G Real Estate in 2004, he served as deputy fund manager from 2015 and co-fund manager from 2023, before taking on his current leadership role as manager in June 2025. The fund has deployed over €1.6 billion in acquisitions over the past nine months, including the Travelodge Poblenou Hotel in Barcelona alongside French and German logistics hubs.
In July 2026, the M&G European Property Fund also made its initial entry into the serviced apartment sector, completing a €73.5 million acquisition of two assets in Germany from developer Livory. Both schemes will be leased on a 20-year term to Livory’s sister company smartments. Ellis described the move as a prime opportunity to access a “structurally undersupplied” but “expanding” market segment. With the fund targeting these “supply constraints” and “long-term structural demand,” additional extended-stay deals are likely on the horizon.
Sophie Forest, Brightspark Ventures (PK)
Sophie Forest has spent more than two decades identifying and supporting early-stage technology companies. Since joining Brightspark Ventures as managing partner in 2003, she has led or overseen multiple investments, including an early investment in travel technology company Hopper.
Her latest hospitality technology investment is Pricepoint, an AI-driven revenue management platform serving hotels and other accommodation providers. Brightspark led Pricepoint’s C$6.6 million seed round in June, with participation from Boreal Ventures and AQC Capital. Forest will join the Pricepoint board as part of the transaction.
Pricepoint attracted Brightspark after building a customer base of hundreds of properties across four continents without previously raising institutional capital. Forest’s track record combines long-term conviction with a focus on commercially disciplined founders. Her backing of Pricepoint signals investor confidence in autonomous hospitality technology.
Katy Katani, CapitalRise (EH)
As lending director at CapitalRise, Katy Katani manages and originates broker and borrower relationships across the UK. Most recently, she originated CapitalRise’s £8 million development facility for a 40-key luxury aparthotel and public house redevelopment in Hammersmith, set to be operated by Numa.
CapitalRise has built its reputation on prime central London residential deals, but Katani is actively spearheading the firm’s evolution into operational real estate and extended-stay hospitality. The Hammersmith deal builds on her £8.2 million Bloomsbury hotel-to-serviced apartment conversion and expands the firm’s footprint, which also includes a 23-unit serviced apartment scheme in South Kensington.
With over 18 years of real estate experience, including prior origination and business development roles at Zorin Finance and Charles Russell Speechlys, Katani also advocates for female leadership and representation in property finance. It positions her as both a key dealmaker and an influential voice in the sector.
Technology
Andrea D’Amico, Airbnb (EH)
Andrea D’Amico is the vice president of hotels at Airbnb, leading the platform’s global expansion into independent and boutique hotel supply. He officially took up the role in June 2026 – about a year after Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky said the company will “aggressively” target further expansion into hotels.
D’Amico brings 25 years of travel and online distribution experience to Airbnb. Before joining the company, he led adventure travel platform WeRoad as CEO for four years, and prior to that, spent 18 years at Booking,com. It’s precisely this knowledge of connectivity partner management and integration that will help Airbnb to build out its hotel supply engine.
What makes D’Amico particularly strategic is how his geographical background aligns with Airbnb’s current pain points. A large volume of hotel supply in Southern Europe remains independently operated – the exact region where traditional short-term rental supply is being squeezed hardest by local regulation. Having managed Booking.com’s EMEA operations for years, D’Amico’s combination of regional expertise and distribution know-how gives Airbnb a serious edge.
Aaron Fessler, Tripworks (PK)
Aaron Fessler brings the perspective of both a technology founder and an attraction operator to the experiences sector. Before launching TripWorks, he founded the Las Vegas driving attraction SPEEDVEGAS, giving him first-hand experience of the operational and commercial challenges facing tours and activities businesses.
TripWorks provides booking, distribution and operational technology for tour operators, attractions, museums and experience providers. Its platform is designed to bring reservations, scheduling, customer communications, marketing and business intelligence into one system.
In January, the company raised $6 million in Series A funding led by Spring Mountain Capital. The investment will support the development of predictive insights, automated pricing and other AI and business intelligence capabilities intended to help operators grow revenue.
Interest in experiences is rising across the accommodation sector as Airbnb, Tripadvisor and other travel businesses invest in activities and ancillary services. Fessler is therefore building TripWorks at a pivotal moment, when the experiences market is professionalising and platforms are trying to become a central operating layer for experiences.
John Lyotier, TravelAI (EH)
I hadn’t heard of TravelAI before its acquisition of the brand name and domain of Sonder. A Canadian company, TravelAI was formed after parent company UpNext Ventures acquired the assets of bankrupt travel technology firm Left Technologies in 2021. The business was subsequently rebuilt and rebranded as TravelAI, led by CEO John Lyotier. Its software helps travellers discover, plan, and book trips.
A liberal arts major rather than a Silicon Valley engineer, Lyotier spent decades navigating enterprise software, marketing, and business development before turning his focus to hospitality distribution. In 2010, he co-founded the Canadian travel tech company Left. Originally launched as a domain monetisation and digital marketing venture, Left developed automated intent-bidding algorithms that funnelled targeted travel searches directly to online travel agencies, eventually generating $1.5 billion in cumulative gross bookings for giants such as Booking.com and Expedia.
That backend infrastructure laid the groundwork for Traveler.md – a “traveller-owned memory file” designed to carry a guest’s tastes and preferences across bookings. By acquiring Sonder’s IP and overlaying this memory file onto Sonder.com, Lyotier is attempting to solve the personalisation problem in travel and build a genuine counterweight to legacy OTAs.
Luca Rodella, Smartness (PK)
Luca Rodella is leading Smartness through a major phase of expansion across Europe.Founded in Trentino in 2020, the company began with a dynamic pricing product before expanding into customer relationship management, payments, communications and property management.
In May, Smartness completed a €47 million Series B comprising primary and secondary equity and debt. Led by United Ventures and CDP Venture Capital, with continued participation from Partech. It takes Smartness’s total capital raised beyond €60 million.
The company now serves more than 5,000 customers across 41 countries, with a particularly strong presence in Italy and the DACH region. Revenue has increased more than sixfold since its 2023 Series A, while the business has reported monthly organic growth of approximately ten per cent. Rodella’s ambition is to move Smartness beyond supplying individual software tools towards an agentic platform capable of taking responsibility for commercial and operational outcomes.
Scott Thiel, Tokinvest (GS)
Tokinvest, a digital investment platform regulated by Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, has launched a tokenised BTR product under the leadership of chief executive and co-founder Scott Thiel.
It gives institutional, qualified and retail investors access to the economic rights linked to a UK BTR asset through a regulated digital-asset framework, issued on BNB Chain. The first asset is Great Hampton Street Works, a 29-unit residential heritage conversion in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, completed in 2025 and now income-generating, with its economic rights available in tokenised form from May 2026.
“We built Tokinvest to solve the problem of capital raising for developers and investment access for all investor classes,” Thiel said. “The BTR product allows people to sit at the top table alongside the developer. Institutional investors have allocated significant capital to this asset class for years. Our aim is to make that type of exposure available to a broader investor base through tokenised infrastructure, while keeping issuance and distribution inside a regulated environment.”
With Tokinvest now courting developers, asset owners and distribution partners to bring further residential opportunities to a broader investor base, Thiel’s platform is positioning itself at the sharp end of real estate’s tokenisation trend.
The trends discussed here, and many more, will be covered at the Urban Living Festival, taking place on 16th February 2027 at Novotel London West. The event introduces a no-cost ticket price for owners, operators, developers and investors across the living and hospitality sectors. Registration is pre-qualified – apply for a pass here. Service providers have the opportunity to sponsor, exhibit, or attend for a nominal fee.
