Metis sets up dedicated residential division

Manchester’s Metis Real Estate Advisors has appointed ex-Lambert Smith Hampton surveyor Ellis Hearfield to head up an expanded residential division.

Hearfield joins from LSH’s build-to-rent and PRS team in Manchester. The team advised on £250m of transactions across a two-year period, notably the forward sale of Renaker’s 44-storey 100 Greengate development, which is now known as Anaconda Cut.

LSH has undergone significant changes in recent weeks with the announcement of redundancies including Josh Levy, Andrew Gardiner and others in a wave of departures since the firm was acquired by Danish entrepreneur John Bengt Moeller’s Great Global Holdings last September. LSH was previously owned by Countrywide.

LSH has said the latest redundancies were part of a “restructuring” of its Manchester office agency team, which currently has senior surveyor Matt Pickersgill as its sole member.

Metis has historically focussed on commercial real estate agency, but is expanding its residential practice with the establishment of a dedicated team as part of its growth strategy. As well as Hearfield, who becomes director, Mi Zhou has joined the team as an analyst.

Zhou has a financial and analytical background from her time as chartered financial analyst at Barclays Capital and Bank of East China in Shanghai.

Hearfield said: “The early addition of Mi Zhou is testament to our collective vision to positively influence the private rented sector and her specialist background will enable us to continue to provide an excellent and unique standard of service to our clients.”

Paul Jones, director of investment agency at Metis, said: “The creation of this new residential division is a fantastic start to 2020 and we are pleased to welcome Ellis and Mi to the team. This is part of our strategic growth plan and an important component in enabling Metis REA to support existing and new clients in both standalone and mixed-use sustainable schemes.”