About the award:

Launched in 2019, this award is open to all AREF Fund Members.

Criteria:

The Outstanding Fund Achievement Award, exclusively open to AREF Funds, sets a high standard of excellence within the industry.  Entrants are required to submit a compelling entry, in no more than 1000 words about why their Fund is Outstanding.

The following criteria will be used for scoring purposes, therefore we recommend your submission includes information on as many of these as possible:

  1. Emphasis on NZC (Net Zero Carbon) while adopting a pragmatic and integrated approach to associated risks: Demonstrating a deep understanding of the significance of NZC considerations and how this impacts a fund’s investment strategy, with a consideration on long-term valuations.  Addressing material risks in an integrated manner to the fund, such as retrofitting, development, and nature risks, with a balanced and proactive risk management strategy.
     
  2. ‘Just transition’ considerations: Highlighting the evolving importance of social impact factors and the fund's commitment to making positive contributions in this area, such as through apprenticeships.
     
  3. Treatment of investors: Illustrating a commitment to transparency, fairness, and responsiveness in dealings with investors, fostering trust and long-term partnerships.  How has the fund embraced transformational distribution ethically and securely and how do you present performance metrics relative to benchmarks and industry standards.
     
  4. Engagement within the industry: Demonstrating active involvement and collaboration within the AREF community and broader industry to foster knowledge sharing and best practices.

Winner 2024:

Winner:  Thriving Investments - The Mid Market Rent (New Avenue Living) Fund

William Kyle of Thriving Investments collecting the award

Judging Panel Comments: For yet another year, the Judging Committee for the AREF Outstanding Fund Achievement Award were placed in a fantastic position in reviewing responses from the fund community. In our opinion Thriving Investments stood out for a number of reasons, with the most interesting point being the nature of how they embraced the 'Just Transition' in a practical way with excellent case studies of leveraging apprenticeships that enable local people to upskill and in also building first class green homes, providing long term benefits to those communities. We recommend that this approach be shared within the investor community to demonstrate how progress can be made and integrated into investment decision making from the start. Particularly important for the real estate sector to ensure a long term future in the investments market through adopting Just Transition principles.

Those shortlisted included:

  • Aviva Investors - The Lime Property Fund
  • Royal London Asset Management - The Royal London UK Real Estate Fund (RLUKREF)
  • Swiss Life Asset Managers - The Property Income Trust for Charities

How to apply:

The deadline for 2024 has now passed.

Deadline:

The deadline for 2024 has now passed.

The winning entry:

The winner will be announced at The AREF Annual Dinner in September (link to event).  The fund manager of the winning submission will also be invited to take part in a 15 minute recorded interview with one of the judges.  This interview will be distributed to AREF members, including our investor members, via various platforms including the AREF website, in the AREF Newsletter, on AREF's social media platforms and via email. The winner will receive a winners logo to use in the marketing of their Fund.

The judging panel:

This award is being judged by a panel of AREF committee members:

  • Jonathan Hale, Knight Frank - Chair
  • Naomi Green, Schroders
  • Dugal Hunt, CBRE
  • Oliver Light, Accenture
  • Robert Boag, Independent Consultant

Click here to view the judging panel biographies:

Jonathan Hale

Jonathan Hale

ESG and Sustainability Director, Knight Frank

Jonathan has extensive experience in the field of sustainability. Before he started at Knight Frank he led the ESG and Sustainability advisory services team within the BNP Paribas Real Estate UK division of Property Management.  This involved guiding clients (from C-suite to asset level) on ESG risks & opportunities, coordination of corporate reporting such as GRESB, UNPRI and EPRA sBPR, supporting clients understand how to make progress on Net Zero and in aligning with TCFD requirements. 

Jonathan also oversaw the centralised service line delivery of ESG related projects geared at driving sustainability performance across the client base.  These projects covered portfolio and asset level technical assessments such as sourcing property utilities efficiency opportunities (energy, water, waste & health & wellbeing) as well as due diligence assessments to understand the steps towards guiding landlords on steps to reaching Net Zero on both a portfolio and individual asset basis.  The BNPPRE sustainability team function also supported client requests for assessments to review the most appropriate approach to incorporating themes, certification and reviews associated with health & wellbeing, social value, biodiversity net gain, green travel plans and sustainability building certification.

 

Naomi Green

Naomi Green

Fund Manager, Schroders Real Estate Capital Partners

Naomi joined Schroders in 2016 as a fund manager in the SRECaP team.  She manages a number of segregated mandates and fund of funds products. She has experience in investing in UK and Continental European real estate funds and sits on a number of Investor Advisory Committees. She has been involved in the restructuring and modernisation of various specialist funds in the AREF Index.
 
Prior to Schroders Naomi was a Research Analyst and Investment Manager at Alecta and before that she was a Research Analyst at Henderson Global Investors and also JLL. She is a member of the IPF and SPR and holds the Investment Management Certificate (IMC) and the IPF Diploma in Property Investment (DipIPF). She has an MSc in Social Research Methods and Statistics from City University, London and a BSc (Hons) in Psychology from City University, London.
Robert Boag

Robert Boag

Independent consultant

Robert Boag is an independent consultant. He was a portfolio manager within Lothian Pension Fund`s investment team with responsibility for the management and oversight of the indirect property assets within Lothian and other collaborative Funds.

Prior to joining Lothian, Robert was responsible for the strategy and performance of UK Commercial Property Trust, a FTSE 250 listed property investment company managed by Ignis Asset Management.

His professional roots are in UK commercial property asset management where he has worked as property and investment manager with both Scottish Metropolitan and Haslemere Estates.

Robert graduated from the University of Paisley in 1986 with a BSc Degree (with commendation) in Land Economics and gained his IPF Diploma in Property Investment in 2010.

He is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and The Investment Property Forum (IPF).

Dugal Hunt

Dugal Hunt

Director, CBRE Global Investors

Dugal Hunt is a Director within the CBRE Global Investment Partners team with responsibility for client portfolio management and sourcing and undertaking due diligence on investment opportunities.

He has 14 years property industry experience and has 11 years of detailed knowledge and experience of investing in real estate funds in the UK and Continental Europe.  In addition to underwriting new investment opportunities, Dugal has been able to use his industry contacts to actively source investments in existing funds on the secondary market.  He has been successful in negotiating attractive entry pricing in a number secondary market transactions on behalf of clients of GIP.

Dugal joined CB Richard Ellis Investors in March 2004.  Prior to this he has worked at Investment Property Databank on the Portfolio Analysis Service for 3.5 years.  Dugal gathered valuable experience during his time at IPD, understanding and analysing portfolio performance statistics.

Dugal is a member of the investment property forum and he has been approved by the FCA to conduct investment business.  He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. He is a graduate of University of Bristol with a degree in Geography.

Oliver Light

Oliver Light

Director of Real Estate, Accenture

Oliver leads on Real Estate at Accenture and is driven to help organisations transition to a net-zero and just economy whilst creating Fund value. Oliver has been fortunate to collaborate with many of the most ambitious private equity, asset managers, and asset owners, resulting in numerous awards and millions in financial savings.

Oliver enjoys close relationships with industry bodies driving change across the sector. He has supported numerous thought-leadership reports, including the whole life carbon report for IIGCC, the SDR consultation with AREF, and many other research papers on ESG, scope 3, regulation, and technology. Oliver’s been twice shortlisted for the AREF outstanding individual contribution award for his work with AREF on sustainability, and he also sits on the AREF and IIGCC ESG committee.

Oliver has an MBA from Bayes Building School (formerly Cass), a BA in Geography, and an MSc in Environmental Management, both from The University of Nottingham.

Terms & conditions:

  • Open to AREF Fund Members only (see list of fund members here).
  • Papers can be submitted in any format (PDF/Word/Web).
  • Up to three pieces of supporting material can be submitted to accompany your submission.
  • Submissions should be under 1000 words.
  • Submissions will be treated confidentially. 
  • The deadline for the submission to be sent to us is (this has now finished for this year)

Previous winners:

2023: Patrizia Hanover Property Unit Trust

2022: Patrizia Hanover Property Unit Trust

2021:  Patrizia Hanover Property Unit Trust

2020: UBS Triton Property Fund LP

2019: UBS Triton Property Fund LP

Enquiries: 

For any enquiries relating to any of the awards, please contact Clare at [email protected]

Related links:

20 Sep 2024

AREF Annual Awards 2024 - Winners Revealed

01 Aug 2024

AREF Annual Awards 2024 - Nominations & Shortlists Announced!

27 Sep 2023

AREF Annual Award Winners 2023 Revealed

30 Aug 2023

AREF Annual Awards 2023 - Nominations & Shortlists Announced!

27 Sep 2023

Interview with 2023 Outstanding Fund Achievement Award Winner, Patrizia Hanover Property Unit Trust


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