Q1 2021

19 Q1 2021 BUILD Sep201049 Positive Social Impact Founded in 2006, QSix (formerly PMM Group) is a specialist real estate asset manager serving the UK & Europe. Following its well-deserved success in the Real Estate & Property Awards 2020, we caught up with Anna Traniello to find out more about one of the best alternative real estate asset managers in the UK today. eadquartered in the UK and with offices in Germany and the Netherlands, QSix employs over 50 professionals. Using the knowledge and experience of the team, the firm continue to deliver attractive and risk-adjusted returns for investors. To start, Anna provides a brief overview of the firm and offers more insight into its clientele. “Currently, with over £1 billion in AUM (as at the end of Q3 2020), we have invested in real estate debt and equity investments in the UK and across Europe. With eight individual partners, Mike Hilton leading the London team and Jörg Schwagenscheidt leading the Berlin team, our international team are highly experienced in all areas of real estate. “From a single strategy at our founding, we have grown to be a multi-disciplinary company with a focus on four strategies, German Residential, Affordable Housing, Real Estate Finance and Specialist Mortgages. Although the company has grown significantly, our mission statement remains the same, to deliver attractive, risk-adjusted returns for investors through uncovering differentiated investment opportunities. Across our strategies, we seek to develop long-term partnerships with both equity and debt investors within the real estate sector that can deliver these returns, while also making a positive social impact within the communities in which it operates. “Rebranding as QSix in September 2020 to reflect our journey since founding alongside the significant market evolutions, we firmly believe we offer a unique and specialist service to investors. Symbolising the six key questions, who, why, what, where, when and how? We believe our ability to create original investment opportunities comes from being able to think harder and ask more meaningful questions.” Standing out from the crowd in the real estate industry is a lot easier said than done, but as Anna explains further, the team’s approach to technology and creativity has allowed the firm to distinguish themselves from the rest. “As innovative thinkers, we pose the questions that nobody else is asking and finding the answers everyone else is seeking. Rather than adopting a ‘one size fits all’ approach, we look to push the boundaries in order to source complex, high touch, underappreciated and deep value investments. Through our collaborative approach and utilising leading-edge technology to provide rigorous research, we drive a continual focus on performance, differentiating ourselves from the competition while adapting to the rapidly changing times.” H Over time the company’s focus has grown somewhat due to experience, and as Anna goes into more detail, these experiences have opened up new opportunities for the firm to take advantage of. “The business has grown to incorporate other strategies including Specialist Mortgages where we act as an Investment Adviser to a number of UK specialist mortgage portfolios acquired from many of the UK’s leading housebuilders. The firm leverages its acquisition and asset management capabilities using Hampton Mortgage Services (HMS), a specialist in-house asset servicing platform dedicated to servicing loans within the real estate sector. Through HMS, we are one of the few real estate managers to use our own service which ensures compliance to regulatory requirements and provides a high level of reassurance to portfolio vendors, who often lack the in-house capabilities to manage the loans themselves.” Finally, Anna discusses some of the recent projects the firm has undertaken, before outlining its future plans for 2021 and beyond. “Moving forward, the future is hugely exciting for QSix across all of our strategies. Through our Affordable Housing Strategy, which will be launched soon, we will assemble a portfolio of London residential properties that are leased to a Local Authority- owned procurement partner to address the Local Authorities’ homelessness obligations, while allowing the firm to deliver a clear and measurable social impact. “Elsewhere, we are very keen to build out our Commercial Real Estate (CRE) platform following its success since launching in 2017, particularly as we see real estate debt as a growing area in the future. This is an area we have a proven track record in with the QSix Real Estate Finance team investing over £100m into the small balance CRE debt market and delivering outperformance relative to target returns.”