Asset Manager - Residential Investment

PRS Asset Manager – Countrywide Residential Investments, Asset Manager of the Vista UK Residential Real Estate Fund LP

The Countrywide Residential Investments team

Vista is a new and exciting residential investment fund with over £150m committed capital available for investment managed by Hermes and Countrywide.
Hermes Investment Management, the £30.1 billion investment manager, and Countrywide plc, the UK`s largest property services group, announce the launch of `Vista` – a new UK residential property fund that aims to be the pre-eminent investment vehicle of its type for institutional investors.
The fund offers institutional investors access to an attractive but historically inaccessible market, UK private rented sector (PRS), by providing the scale, expertise and resources essential for them to allocate. Residential property investment has delivered returns in excess of all other UK real estate sectors for more than a decade, while at the same time exhibiting low correlations.

Vista targets high-quality, modern, purpose-built residential stock across the UK, with a bias toward regional towns and cities with strong underlying economies. Vista has already invested in four assets in Manchester, Birmingham and Nottingham.
Vista aims manage over £1Bn within 3 years and to become the pre-eminent UK PRS fund for institutional investors.

Countrywide Residential Investments, acting as the Asset Manager for the Vista UK Residential Investments LP, is seeking to hire a highly experienced asset manager to lead all asset and property management activities within its portfolio.

The Role

We are looking for an energetic and entrepreneurial individual with demonstrable passion for property and asset management, to join our growing team and lead our existing residential portfolio asset management activities. The role will see you taking an important position, having direct responsibility of Vista`s entire residential property portfolio.

You will be reporting to, and working closely with, the head of our PRS division, helping Vista develop and deliver our future PRS/Multi-Family product proposition.

You will be based in our London office (Mayfair area), but as part of the role will be expected to travel frequently to sites across the UK. In the period immediately before and after delivery of new assets, you will be expected to spend significant time on site with the local teams ensuring successful hand over from the developers and lease-up of the building.

Examples of what you will be doing:

– Managing our relationship with Countrywide Corporate Lettings
– Develop and periodically review the marketing strategy for each asset (setting target rents, phasing, tenant profile, incentives, renewals etc)
– Develop and implement revenue generation initiatives
– Delivering great service
– Visit all properties within the portfolio on a regular basis to oversee operations and onsite staff. This will entail occasional travel.
– Perform property inspections to monitor performance and compliance with approved business plans and policies, as well as identify opportunities for improvement and value creation and any issues that may require additional action.
– Roll-out customer satisfaction surveys across our portfolio
– Continue developing Vista`s resident proposition
– Review monthly, quarterly, and annual financial statements and comparisons to budget, which includes review of leasing targets, occupancy, revenues, expenses, capital expenditures, and property cash flow.
– Prepare budgets
– Closely monitor the portfolio performance using internal and external tools
– Monitor and approve expenditures
– Provide weekly updates on KPIs to the team
– Provide monthly and quarterly commentary against KPIs for the Board of Directors
– Prepare and conduct tenders for significant capital expenditure (e.g. furniture)
– Maintain (or oversee the maintenance) of a detailed asset register for all assets in the portfolio
– Support the Acquisitions team using knowledge of market trends and running costs
– Develop policy and procedure manuals, including health and safety and insurance

Examples of how you will know you are doing a great job:

– Deliver excellent customer service as evidenced by customer satisfaction surveys and NPS score
– The assets in your portfolio will out-perform their budgets

Experience you have that will set you up for success:

– Most importantly, we are looking for someone with proven experience in the residential management sector:
– You will have managed at a portfolio of at least 100 units
– You will have deep knowledge of the UK residential letting market – how tenancy agreements work, property management, estate management, relevant legislation and marketing of residential properties
– Thorough understanding of residential financial reporting.
– Comfortable working in a semi-autonomous and reasonably self-sufficient capacity, but also be a strong team player
– Highly organized with and excellent time management ability
– Obsessive attention to detail and excellent fluency in Excel
– Exceptional written and oral communications skills