The ULI UK Young Leaders were lucky to have the opportunity to hear from James Jacobs, Managing Director and Head of Real Estate within Private Capital Advisory at Lazard.

James spoke about his career starting at Goldman Sachs within their Investment Banking Division, specifically, where he was introduced to assets producing cash flow. It was through this experience, he identified real estate as an interesting sector for the long term.

He moved to DTZ’s Corporate Finance team in 2002 to continue his career in real estate where the team soon secured a large secondaries deal, propelling their reputation in the market.

In 2008, James left DTZ to join Lazard, to help establish the real estate practice within Private Capital Advisory. After scouring the market and building up a database of GPs and LPs, the team have successfully raised in excess of $20 billion of capital for 42 funds.

James spoke about recent fundraises where the team were particularly successful, naming Tristan Capital, Henderson Park, NREP and Baumont as a few. He continues to focus on attracting managers with: (i) a unique, differentiated investment thesis; (ii) a high calibre manager and team and; (iii) a product where there is likely to be investor appetite.

He noted that it is currently an interesting time for real estate, with an abundance of equity in the market causing investors to continuously increase their real estate allocation by 0.5-1.0% per annum on average. Whilst at the same time, the market continues to be cautious about the property cycle, the economic cycle and the political cycle, proving interesting times are ahead.

Words by Emilie Walker – Transaction Manager, Associate, Pradera