WHO WE ARE

We are a specialist team, unique in the

UK market for the depth of our

knowledge of Purpose-Built Student

Accommodation (PBSA). We provide our

clients with commercial advice and support

on strategy, transactions, development and

operations. We have been involved with closing

over 50 university partnership and direct-let PBSA projects.

Our team of senior professionals have extensive property

and legal backgrounds and bring well over

a century’s worth of collective experience in PBSA,

from the varied perspectives of having:

Advised leading UK universities on a variety of procurement, development and financial projects to expand and improve PBSA.
Produced and implemented a number of residential strategies and demand studies.
Worked at UK universities and developed accommodation within that environment.
Worked with all the key sponsors in the PBSA public procurement market.
Directly bid, won, developed, owned and operated over 15,000 PBSA beds in the UK and 45,000 beds globally (the majority in university partnership structures).

Solutions First

(Asset Management & Governance Experience)

Student First

(Operational &

University

Experience)

Shareholder First

(Development & Investment Experience)

WHO IS SFG?

THE SFG STORY

Martin Hadland and Richard Gabelich founded SFG in 2018, seeing an opportunity to combine and use their collective, unique and diverse PBSA and property experience. Since then they have grown SFG and built an impressive track record.

We have facilitated solutions and provided value for clients and partners across a diverse asset range in multiple countries. In 2022 the University Advisory team was strengthened with the addition of Robert Kingham, Rebecca Jones and David Stephens, who joined SFG from Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), a global PBSA advisor.

Our team prides itself on breaking down complex transactions and providing practical and commercial advice to clients. This is managed under two separate business areas:

Under Student First, we advise universities, developers, investors, and operators in the purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) market in both off-campus/direct let property and on-campus infrastructure partnership models.

We believe in the importance of always holding the core principle of putting the student first and maximising the student experience in both physical design and operating environments.

Under Investment Management we provide strategic asset management solutions to investors in the retail, residential, and hospitality markets.

It is our varied and general development, investment and operations experience across the infrastructure and property sectors that sets us apart. We understand the importance of ‘joined up thinking’ for transactions and the long-term drivers of stakeholder success.

We have substantial PBSA expertise, having held leadership roles at Campus Living Villages (CLV), a global PBSA developer and operator focused on university partnerships, as well as JLL, and several UK universities. Our unique range of experience ideally positions SFG to advise on transactions where a university party is involved and where the end-user student experience is paramount.