Legal & General hires Vanisha Thakrar as Head of Investment for Housing

Vanisha’s appointment signals the next stage of growth for LGC’s diverse housing platform, as it seeks to scale its positive impact across its diverse investment portfolio that includes build-to-sell, build-to-rent, affordable housing, later living and modular homes.

Vanisha joins with 13 years of real estate investment experience gained from roles in investment banking, principal investments and portfolio management. Prior to joining LGC, she was a Director in the European Transactions group at Harrison Street Real Estate Capital, where she was responsible for sourcing, underwriting and executing transactions in the student housing and residential sectors. In addition, she focussed on establishing and managing joint venture relationships with operators and developers.

Previously, she worked at Macquarie Group before moving to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board where she worked on establishing new joint ventures, underwriting new investments and managing the business’ existing investments which included serving on the board of directors of various JV companies and as a board observer for CPP Investment’s student housing platform.

In her new role as Head of Investment – Housing, Vanisha will leverage her significant experience to support the growth of LGC’s multi-tenure housing platform, both in the UK and, increasingly, abroad in line with the business’ international ambitions. She will also be responsible for the portfolio management of a number of LGC’s existing investments, as well as leading on the strategy, creation and execution of new business opportunities.

LGC has built its market leading capabilities in a range of alternative assets, delivering depth of resource, track record and intellectual property. Investing in the real economy and creating alternative assets that deliver a tangible societal impact, its purpose is to invest society’s capital for society’s benefit.  LGC’s investments have been vertically integrated and include: residential property; specialist commercial real estate; clean energy; alternative credit; and venture capital.

As LGC’s capability to create alternative assets continues to grow, it will not only continue to grow its balance sheet of alternative assets but also create alternative assets for third party investors. Many of these investors have the same aims, namely to create assets to back pensions with an improved yield or to create assets with strong growth prospects but with low correlation to equities.

Through inclusive capitalism, we aim to build a better society by investing in long-term assets that benefit everyone and have invested over £30bn in levelling-up regional economies, including through major UK-wide regeneration scheme