Amro Partners has hired Leo Hertog as Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer within its dedicated student housing arm – Amro Student Living – to accelerate the firm’s growth within the European student housing sector and support its planned expansion into the UK student housing market in 2025.
Leo will also take on the interim role of Acting Co-Head for Northern Europe alongside Pablo Garcia-Morales Osorio, replacing Rainer Nonnengässer who will leave the company at the end of this year to take up a new position within the industry.
Leo has over fifteen years’ experience in sourcing, acquiring and managing real estate investments across Europe, including purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA), residential, retail, hotel and offices.
As Director of Real Estate at APG Asset Management, Leo’s most recent role, he managed over €2.2bn equity in pan-European student housing and residential assets, including development projects.
He managed APG’s investment in the integrated company since 2015 and, together with GIC, acquired Aermont’s controlling stake in the company – valuing it at €2.1bn.
He has also sat on numerous other boards, investment and advisory committees relating to real estate investments undertaken by APG.
“As a vertically integrated developer and operator with local teams in five key European countries, Amro Partners is very well positioned to create a sizeable next generation ESG-leading student housing platform.
“The European student housing market has excellent fundamentals: growing demand, a severe supply-demand imbalance, and a large number of existing (public) student housing assets which fail to meet student expectations nor ESG standards.
“Combined with the proven counter-cyclical performance, student housing is top of every investor’s wish list. Leveraging my strong experience and relationships in the European student housing space, I look forward to working with the team to build on their track record and grow the company’s presence in existing and new markets.”
Leo Hertog, Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer, Amro Student Living
Since 2015, Leo has managed investments in more than 50 student housing assets and developments in key European cities such as London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Florence, Vienna and Dublin.
He was formerly a Director of UK student housing provider Scape Living Plc and managed the £1bn GCP Student Living Plc take-private, alongside IQ and Blackstone.
Leo was also a board member of The Social Hub (formerly known as The Student Hotel) – a hybrid student housing accommodation and hospitality business model.
Based in London, Leo will work closely with Amro Chairman and CEO Raj Kotecha, European Managing Director for Investment Pablo Garcia-Morales Osorio and the in-country investment teams to originate, structure, and deploy capital across Amro’s existing student housing markets of Spain, Germany, Netherlands and Portugal, as well as its planned expansion into the UK student housing space.
“Leo is well known to the Amro team and we are delighted to have him join us at this crucial stage in our growth journey. He brings a wealth of experience to the table which will prove invaluable as we strengthen our proposition as a specialist European living sector asset manager working with larger scale institutional capital partners.
“Rainer Nonnengässer leaves with our very best wishes for the future and I’d like to personally thank him for his important contribution.
“We are at an advanced stage of closing our investment partnerships for Northern Europe and I look forward to announcing these together with new senior team hires for the region in the coming weeks.”
Raj Kotecha, Chairman and CEO, Amro Partners
With offices across London, Madrid, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam and a dedicated team of 60 real estate professionals, Amro is focused on creating a market-leading European PBSA portfolio, building on its existing actionable pipeline of over 5,000 student beds.
