People Property Place

This week, I sat down with James Jacobs, Managing Director and Global Head of Real Assets within the Private Capital Advisory team at Lazard, to explore the topic Real Asset Capital Formation: Who Wins?
In this conversation, James opens with a striking assessment of where the market actually stands. Fundraising volumes rose for the first time in four years in 2025, up 27% year on year. But the headline number masks a far more complex story. The market has never been more concentrated, more competitive or more unforgiving for managers who don't understand what investors are really looking for today.
James breaks down the three sectors attracting the lion's share of capital, why 1 in 3 dollars raised last year went into a single asset class, and why two sectors that dominated the industry when he started his career over 25 years ago are now considered niche. He also shares a clear and candid view on what distinguishes the managers who are winning capital from those who are not, and why the answer comes back to something surprisingly simple.
We then explore three structural trends that James believes will define the industry for years to come. The bifurcation of the market into mega funds and hyper-specialists, the rapid rise of secondaries and continuation vehicles as a portfolio management tool, and the blurring of the lines between real estate and infrastructure that is quietly redirecting billions of dollars across asset class boundaries.
🎯 Key Topics
✅ Global Fundraising in 2025. Recovery or Illusion?
✅ The Three Sectors Dominating Capital Formation Right Now
✅ Why the Squeezed Middle Is Getting Squeezed Even Further
✅ Secondaries and Continuation Vehicles. Powerful Tool or Manager Lifeline?
✅ The Convergence of Real Estate and Infrastructure and What It Means for Your Capital
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This week on People Property Place, we do something different. Recorded live on the ground at Mipim in Cannes, this episode is the first of a new format: People Property Place Profiles. Where I walk and talk with some of the most outspoken and influential figures across the real assets industry.

This week's conversation features Shaun Simons, co-founder of Compton, whose previous episode held the number one download spot on the show for nearly two years. Recorded in the middle of one of the industry's biggest annual gatherings, Shaun is characteristically unfiltered, direct and full of conviction.

The conversation opens with Shaun making a bold call — he is more optimistic about the market right now than he has been since 2021. He breaks down the three specific forces he believes are converging to make 2026 a genuinely pivotal year for the London office market, and why the narrative of an industry circling the drain is finally starting to shift.

Shaun also takes aim at one of commercial property's biggest blind spots — the industry's chronic failure to communicate with the people it is actually trying to do business with — and explains why he believes the big surveying firms have been getting this fundamentally wrong for years.

The discussion turns to the role of personal brand and social media in building a real estate business, where Shaun shares a remarkable story about how four years of consistent LinkedIn activity resulted in a 40,000 sq ft instruction he never had to pitch for. He also reveals that he attributes somewhere between 25 and 30% of Compton's total revenue directly to social media.

Finally Shaun shares his outlook for the year ahead, why he believes the stars are aligning for a genuine market recovery and what keeps him up at night as he leads a growing team of over 30 people.

Drop your thoughts in the comments. We would love to hear your take.

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This week, I sat down with Toby Phelps, Co-President of BGO, who has spent 30 years at the top of European real estate investing and been involved in over $20 billion of transactions across logistics, office, retail, residential and healthcare assets.
In this conversation, Toby traces a career that took him from JLL in the mid-nineties through Morgan Stanley's private equity real estate team, where he was in the building next to Lehman Brothers when the financial crisis hit. He reflects on what that moment did to his understanding of risk, and how the lessons absorbed at Tishman Speyer under Jerry Spier shaped everything that followed.
We explore the strategic evolution from Green Oak to BGO, now approaching $100 billion in AUM, why the merger with Bentall Kennedy made sense when so many others didn't, and what institutional investors are really demanding from managers today.
Toby also makes a compelling case for why European real estate remains one of the most misunderstood opportunities in global capital markets right now and why location, location, location needs a serious update.
And of course, I asked Toby the big question: Who are the People, what Property, and which Place would you invest in if you had £500 million to deploy?
Drop your thoughts in the comments. I would love to hear your take.
Key Topics
✅ From JLL to Morgan Stanley — building the foundations of a 30 year career
✅ Lehman Brothers, the financial crisis and what it really teaches you about risk
✅ Green Oak to BGO — the merger strategy that changed everything
✅ Why Europe is misunderstood by global capital
✅ AI, data science and the US versus Europe gap in real estate investing
Episode Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:09 - How Toby Got Into Real Estate
01:58 - Early Career at JLL
05:19 - Joining Morgan Stanley Real Estate
07:47 - Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis
09:49 - Tishman Speyer and Jerry Spier
12:42 - The Genesis of Green Oak
23:07 - Investment Strategy — Top Down Bottom Up
28:09 - Green Oak to BGO
31:36 - Sun Life and the Importance of a Capital Partner
33:57 - BGO's Five European Strategies
37:44 - Private Wealth Capital
42:27 - Location, Asset Quality and Power
44:01 - Is Europe Undervalued by Global Capital
46:20 - Succession Planning and Leadership
49:15 - AI and Data Science in Real Estate
54:00 - Attitude and Advice for the Next Generation
55:15 - The £500 Million Question
The People Property Place Podcast is powered by Rockbourne, recruiting leadership talent for real estate funds, owners, investors, and developers.
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This week, I sat down with Mathieu Elshout to explore the journey that took him from environmental sciences into institutional real estate investing, and how he is now helping build the European property platform for one of Australia's fastest growing pension funds.
Mathieu is Head of European Property at Aware Super UK. Before joining Aware Super, he spent more than a decade at PGGM managing European real estate investments through the Global Financial Crisis and subsequent recovery, and later worked at Patrizia where he helped develop the firm's sustainability and impact investing strategy.
In this conversation, Mathieu shares how his early career began in environmental consultancy before gradually transitioning into the real estate sector. That background continues to shape the way he thinks about real assets today, particularly the growing importance of sustainability, long term value creation and the role real estate plays in the wider economy.  
We discuss his time at PGGM and the experience of managing institutional real estate portfolios during the Global Financial Crisis. Mathieu explains how those years shaped his perspective on leverage, liquidity and market cycles, and why some of the most valuable lessons in investing are learned during periods of stress.  
The conversation also explores his move to Patrizia and the development of its impact investing strategy. Mathieu explains how sustainability evolved from a niche topic into a core investment consideration, and why institutional investors increasingly see environmental and social outcomes as aligned with long term financial performance.  
Finally, we discuss Aware Super's growing presence in Europe and how the Australian superannuation model is creating some of the largest and most influential pools of capital in global real estate. Mathieu explains how the fund is building its European portfolio through partnerships and platforms including investments in UK residential, Spanish rental housing and hospitality, and why alignment with operating partners is critical when deploying long term capital.  
Key Topics Covered in This Episode
✅ From Environmental Science to Real Estate
Mathieu's path from sustainability consultancy into institutional property investing.
✅ Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis
What managing real estate portfolios through a market downturn teaches investors.
✅ Sustainability and Impact Investing
How ESG and impact strategies became central to institutional real estate investing.
✅ Building Aware Super's European Platform
Why the Australian pension fund model is expanding rapidly into global real estate.
✅ Investing Through Partnerships
Why alignment with operating partners is essential for long term capital.
EPISODE CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
01:32 From Environmental Science to Real Estate
06:45 Early Career and Moving into Institutional Investing
14:10 Managing Portfolios Through the Global Financial Crisis
25:34 Sustainability and Impact Investing at Patrizia
36:22 The Aware Super Platform and European Expansion
47:18 Partnerships, Platforms and Investment Strategy
56:40 Where Opportunities Exist in Today's Market
01:02:11 The £500M Investment Question
And of course, I asked Mathieu the big question:
Who are the People, what Property, and which Place would you invest in if you had £500 million to deploy?
If you have thoughts or questions about this episode, drop them in the comments. I'd love to hear your take.
The People Property Place Podcast is powered by Rockbourne, recruiting leadership talent for real estate funds, owners, investors, and developers.
🔊 LIKE ➡ SHARE ➡ SUBSCRIBE
👉 http://peoplepropertyplace.com/

This week, I sat down with Michael Zerda to unpack a career that spans private equity real estate, distressed credit, structured capital and some of the most complex investment situations across Europe and the United States.
Michael is Global Head of Real Estate at Santander Alternative Investments and CEO of Deva Capital, the real estate and corporate capital solutions investment arm of the business. Over a 25 year career, he has helped raise more than $5 billion of capital and overseen the deployment of more than $11 billion of equity across more than 200 transactions across Western Europe.
In this conversation, Michael shares the story behind his journey from a Polish immigrant growing up in Texas to becoming a global real estate investor working across debt, equity and special situations. We explore how his early career developed through private equity real estate, distressed debt and high yield investing, and how those experiences shaped the way he approaches market cycles today.  
We discuss why the widely predicted wave of real estate distress following the interest rate shock of 2022 has not materialised in the way many investors expected. Michael explains how stronger bank balance sheets, lower leverage and asset owners holding positions for longer have fundamentally changed the dynamics compared with previous cycles.  
The conversation also explores where stress is actually appearing in the market today. Rather than dramatic distress events, Michael highlights a quieter liquidity squeeze affecting operators whose business models rely on transactions and capital raising. For investors able to deploy flexible capital across debt, structured equity or partnerships, this environment may present significant opportunities.  
Finally, we discuss Michael's current role within Santander Alternative Investments, how the platform integrates real estate investing with corporate special situations, and where he sees opportunities emerging across Europe as markets adjust to the new interest rate environment.  
Key Topics Covered in This Episode
✅ From Poland to Texas
Michael's unconventional journey into global real estate investing.
✅ The Distress That Never Came
Why the expected wave of distressed real estate has taken longer to appear.
✅ Liquidity Stress Beneath the Surface
How fundraising challenges and fewer transactions are impacting operators.
✅ Debt, Equity and Special Situations
Why flexible capital structures are becoming increasingly important.
✅ Where Opportunities Exist in Europe
How different markets are behaving very differently in the current cycle.
 
EPISODE CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction
01:08 From Poland to Texas
05:12 Discovering Real Estate Investing
11:04 Early Career in Private Equity Real Estate
19:42 Distressed Debt and Market Cycles
30:11 Why the Distress Wave Never Came
42:05 Liquidity Stress in Real Estate
51:15 Building Deva Capital
57:55 Where Opportunities Exist in Europe
01:02:48 Deep Value Investing in Today's Market
01:07:10 The £500M Investment Question
 
And of course, I asked Michael the big question:
Who are the People, what Property, and which Place would you invest in if you had £500 million to deploy?
If you have thoughts or questions about this episode, drop them in the comments. I'd love to hear your take.
The People Property Place Podcast is powered by Rockbourne, recruiting leadership talent for real estate funds, owners, investors, and developers.
🔊 LIKE ➡ SHARE ➡ SUBSCRIBE
👉 http://peoplepropertyplace.com/