Recruitment · Senior and leadership appointments
The wrong senior hire costs more than a bad building.
Retained executive search for leadership roles across student housing, build to rent, coliving and later living — run by people who have held the roles they are recruiting for.
The problem
Generalist search firms do not know this sector. They screen on job titles, produce a longlist of people who have run apartments rather than beds, and cannot tell the difference between an operations director who has mobilised a building and one who has inherited a stabilised one.
Sector specialists are closer, but most are agencies paid on placement — which means their incentive is to fill the role, not to tell you the role is wrong.
What is included
- Role definition and scoping — including an honest view on whether the role as written is fillable
- Market mapping across the UK, Europe, North America and Australia
- Direct approach to passive candidates, including people not looking
- Structured competency interviews against criteria agreed in advance
- Operational assessment — can they actually run the thing, not just describe it
- Compensation benchmarking against live sector data
- Reference and background verification
- Offer management, negotiation and onboarding support
Roles we recruit
Senior and leadership appointments across the residential living sectors.
- Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer
- Director of Operations and Head of Operations
- Head of Sales, Marketing or Revenue
- Head of Asset Management
- Head of ESG or Sustainability
- Regional and Cluster Managers
- Head of Mobilisation and Head of Property
Ways to buy it
Retained search
Full process
Exclusive, staged fee, complete process from scoping to onboarding.
Market map
Research only
Who exists, where they are and what they cost — without an approach.
Advisory
Second opinion
Assessment of a candidate or shortlist you have already found.
Why we are different
We have hired for these roles ourselves and been interviewed for them. That means the assessment is operational rather than biographical — we ask the questions a general manager would ask, because we have had to answer them.
Common questions
Asked often enough to answer here.
How does executive search differ from recruitment?
Executive search is a retained, proactive process for senior roles: the market is mapped, candidates are approached directly whether or not they are looking, and assessment is structured against agreed criteria. Contingent recruitment is reactive and paid on placement, which suits volume operational hiring but rarely surfaces the best senior candidates, because those people are not applying for jobs.
Do you work outside the UK?
Yes. Search has been run across the UK, Europe, North America and Australia, supported by associate consultants in fourteen countries.
What if the hire does not work out?
Retained search includes a rebate and replacement period, set out in the engagement letter before work begins. We would rather have that conversation at the start than after a resignation.
Free first conversation
Tell us what is not working.
Most people arrive with a scheme that is not performing, an operator they cannot read, or a board paper due Friday. Any of those is a fine place to start. Thirty minutes, no proposal attached.