MEET THE JUDGES

Asha Agarwal is a senior property consultant with over 20 years’ experience across affordable home ownership and the new-build housing sector. A woman of colour operating in a traditionally male-dominated industry, she has built her career within some of the UK’s most prominent housing associations and property organisations, including L&Q, before progressing to Director level leading the shared ownership arm of global real estate firm Savills.

Across her career, Asha has helped over 1,000 first-time buyers access home ownership, giving her a strong, practical understanding of customer outcomes, affordability pressures and the real-world impact of housing delivery.

She now leads Inspire New Homes, an award-winning consultancy advising housing associations, local authorities and private developers on optimising the full new-homes sales journey. Her work focuses on accelerating sales performance, strengthening governance and embedding best practice, enabling organisations to maximise income and reinvest surpluses into affordable housing delivery.

Asha brings extensive experience of assessing quality and performance across new-build schemes, with involvement from concept through to delivery, including design, specification, placemaking, amenities and sales strategy. Her naturally inquisitive, evidence-led approach gives her a clear understanding of what drives successful outcomes and where projects fall short.

As a judge, Asha offers a balanced, informed and objective perspective, combining commercial awareness with a strong focus on customer experience, design quality, innovation and long-term sustainability. She is committed to recognising excellence, integrity and genuine impact within the residential property sector.

As head of Shoosmiths’ Living Sector, Catherine advises on a broad range of real estate transactions for privately-owned development companies, entrepreneurs, PLCs and household names, and has significant experience of acting on residential development schemes. Catherine has a particular focus on the later living market, advising developers on acquisitions and disposals of care homes and senior living sites, as well as issues around pre-lets, forward funding and development financing. Shoosmiths won Legal Team of the Year at Property Week’s RESI Awards 2020 and 2021.

Choisanne has extensive experience in the real estate sector covering all aspects of real estate transactions from investment acquisitions and disposals to development and funding work.

Choisanne’s experience is across all sectors including offices, shopping centres, retail parks, industrial, self-storage, student accommodation, care homes, hotels and residential led development schemes. She has particular expertise in the BTR and PRS sectors.

Choisanne acts for a spectrum of clients ranging from private and publicly listed property companies to investments funds, asset managers and high net worth individuals.

I have worked in the development sector for the last twenty five years. Although I currently principally provide legal advice, I have full commercial experience of all sides of the residential property market, from funding, through planning and construction delivery to steady state operations and management.”

Debra is the founder and CEO of SAY, an award-winning consultancy business working with investors and developers to provide strategic operational advice for mixed-use and living assets. Debra has over 25 years’ experience in residential property and is recognised as one of the major contributors to the industry. Before starting SAY, Debra was Director of Asset and Property Management at Grainger plc.

Debra is an expert in residential property and asset management with a particular focus on build to rent, placemaking, regeneration and industry innovation. She has a keen interest in the positive social impact that can be delivered through new development. Debra has been a long-standing advocate for encouraging diversity within the real estate sector

Debra has non-executive roles on the boards of Grove End Housing Limited, M&G Shared Ownership Fund, is an advisor to DeverellSmith Recruitment and served on the Board of Notting Hill Housing for nine years. She is a recognised spokesperson on behalf of the residential sector and is a member of Property Weeks Resi Senate

Henry has more than 18 years’ experience in strategic communications within the property sector. He works primarily with developers, investment managers and consultants, helping them engage with potential investors, tenants, customers, partners, communities and other stakeholders in ways that resonate, achieve business objectives and create positive change.

Jane joined Fresh in 2010, laying the foundations for the company’s operational platform and playing a instrumental role in its continued growth and success. As a leader in the Build to Rent (BTR) and Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) sectors, Jane oversees the day-to-day operations and is a passionate advocate for enhancing the social and wellbeing experiences of students and residents. Her commitment to creating vibrant, thriving communities has positioned Fresh as trailblazer in the industry.

Jason joined Quintain in 2017 and leads the Development team, new business origination and acquisition. Under Jason’s leadership the Placemaking, Design, Planning, Development, Commercial Leasing and Build-to-Rent products have resulted in Wembley Park being a market-leading showcase of Quintain’s specialisms.

Jason joined Quintain from the Development Director role at Stanhope Plc where he focused on pre-development, development, new business and large-scale mixed-use regeneration. Jason was involved in projects such as the 2 million sq ft Ruskin Square scheme in Croydon and the 1.5 million sq ft Station Hill scheme in Reading, facilitating solutions-based partnerships with Schroders and Benson Elliot respectively.

Jason is a chartered engineer and an active committee member of both the British Council of Offices and the British Property Federation. He is a founding member of the BPF's Build-to-Rent taskforce and has been a Property Week judge (RESI Awards) since 2022.

Kimberley has worked in built environment communications for 15 years, spanning both in-house and agency roles. As Director at leading communications consultancy, ING Media, Kimberley’s work focusses on reputational and strategic advisory for clients in a cross-section of the property sector. A fluent German speaker, Kimberley began her career in financial PR and has held in-house roles at Arcadis and LLDC.

Neil has over 25 years of experience in the living sector. He’s a pioneer in the Build to Rent sector, including setting up and being CEO of Get Living. Through his business, Young Group, he now invests in and supports living sector businesses. This ranges from BtR and the wider PRS, student accommodation (both HMOs and PBSA), and new innovations focused on exploring new investment opportunities in the living sector.

Nick is an Architect and Managing Executive Director at Whittam Cox Architects. He has worked in Architecture for over twenty-nine years, primarily focussing on urban living projects in all forms. He has a particularly strong interest in the continual evolution of student living design and the maturing Built to Rent sector. With experience across both private and public sectors his knowledge of multigenerational rental living brings a unique, invaluable, and often innovative approach to projects, to ensure maximum value is achieved throughout all aspects of the design and construction process. Nick is a strong advocate of sustainability and has a passion for innovation including the application of design to improve outcomes in Modern Methods of Construction.

Rebecca has 19 years of diverse experience across all real estate sectors. The last 7 years she has had a particular focus on operational residential markets leading on Research for the Living sectors at BNP Paribas Real Estate, including Healthcare, Senior Living, Build-to-Rent, and Student Housing. She works closely with the market teams supporting them with research, data trends, analytics and thought pieces. Rebecca trained in the real estate sector at the well-regarded IPD, now MSCI. Rebecca is a member of the Society of Property Researchers.

Sean is passionate about real estate development with an open and honest approach underpinned by a commitment to genuine collaboration and creative problem solving. In the past 27 years he has accumulated extensive experience in Design, Development and Project Management across multiple sectors and asset classes having held a number of senior and executive management positions in both Client Developer, Family Office and Global consultancies.

Susan is a real estate partner at law firm Mishcon de Reya. An experienced real estate lawyer, her in-depth understanding of the property market, the emerging world of tech and her business training as a Sloan Masters MSc (London Business School) graduate, combined with a wide circle of contacts is an effective combination. She is listed in Property Week's Women's Power List, which describes her as "a world-class networker" with "a contact book full of CEOs",

In 2021, Susan received an honorary doctorate from the University College of Estate Management (UCEM) , in recognition of her contribution to the built environment.

She is on the board of Central District Alliance, the Holborn and surrounding area's Business Improvement District and chairs its Property Group and is on the advisory boards of real estate investment company Seaforth Land and of flexible working company Work.Life. She is also an active member of a number of property-related organisations, including Vice Chair of the British Property Federation's Technology and Innovation Group and member of the ULI Europe Technology and Real Estate Product Council.

Susan hosts the popular Propertyshe podcast where she has now interviewed 80+ of the top influencers who define and make a difference to the real estate industry and built environment. The podcast series is recognised as #1 in the recent Top 25 Best London Real Estate Podcasts (FeedSpot).

Susan writes for Property Week on property industry issues, undertakes regular speaking and panel engagements and is active on social media as @Propertyshe .

Senior marketing communications leader with over 14 years’ experience in promoting and positioning award-winning property and retail brands. Passionate about transforming workplace experiences into enriched environments, offering equal opportunities that not only elevate employee engagement and performance but also cultivate a culture rich in diversity.