Stanhope bolsters investment team with appointment of George Ellaby

With over eight years of investment and capital markets experience, George will play a key role supporting Stanhope’s acquisition ambitions, as it seeks to take advantage of pricing dislocation and renewed investor appetite for prime, well-located London offices.

Based in London, George will report directly to Head of Investment Joe Binns. Alongside Joe, he will be responsible for identifying, underwriting, structuring and executing new investment opportunities across London, with a focus on the City of London and West End, on behalf of Stanhope’s institutional capital partners.

George spent eight years at Savills, most recently as an Associate Director in the Central London Investment team. During that time, he advised a broad mix of UK and international investors on approximately £3 billion of predominantly office transactions, spanning both buy-side and sell-side mandates.

His experience includes major Central London disposals, acquisitions, recapitalisations and development funding opportunities, with mandates worked on including the sale of Stirling Square, 30 Golden Square, and the Lotus Portfolio.

In July, Stanhope announced that it had been appointed by Norges Bank Investment Management (“NBIM”) to secure prime commercial assets across London and Paris, alongside managing NBIM’s 2.4 million sq ft portfolio of directly owned and managed prime commercial assets in London’s West End, Midtown and City, and Paris CBD.

Joe Binns, Head of Investment at Stanhope, said: “George has firmly established himself as a trusted adviser to several leading institutional investors active in the London office market. He brings exactly the combination of relationships, technical underwriting capability and transaction experience we need as we look to grow our investment activity. These attributes will be hugely valuable as we look to accelerate our acquisition activity on behalf of our capital partners.”

George Ellaby added: “Stanhope’s 30-year track record of delivering some of London’s most iconic buildings puts it in rarified company. I’m incredibly excited to be joining David, Joe and the wider team at what is a compelling point in the cycle for high conviction office investors. The market is creating attractive opportunities for investors with capital, conviction and the ability to execute, and Stanhope is exceptionally well placed to identify and unlock those opportunities.”