Jones Lang LaSalle : Sowgol Zarinchang joins JLL’s Serviced Apartment team

​London, 19th December 2016 - JLL has appointed Sowgol Zarinchang to join its Serviced Apartment team as investor interest in the sector soars.

Sowgol joins from the Notting Hill Housing Trust where she was Director of Private Rent and Student Lets. During her 14 year career at the Trust she was also head of policy and formulated a strategy and built up a team focused on student accommodation. Her key achievements include managing an asset portfolio of over £500 million and over 1800 properties in 13 different local authorities. She launched a new brand named Folio London which is the Notting Hill Housing Group private rented sector offering.

Her hire reflects the evolution of the serviced apartment sector as the rise of the 'bleisure' customer and home sharing platform such as Airbnb means serviced apartments are not limited to corporate consumers. She joins JLL's new and growing Serviced Apartments & Aparthotel team following the appointment of Max Thorne in March.

Max Thorne, Managing Director of JLL's Serviced Apartments team, commented: 'The serviced apartment sector is maturing and growing at a rapid pace. The sector now accounts for 6% of total hotel investment volumes compared to just 2% in 2011. As the sector sees more interest from investors due to better data, improved product awareness along with evolving consumer habits, there will be more crossover with the private rental sector.

'Sowgol's residential and PRS experience makes her the perfect candidate to join the team and help clients to navigate a changing and evolving sector.'

JLL figures show that transaction volumes in the sector have increased by 146% between 2011 and 2016. Over the next 3 years there are around 3,500 serviced apartments planned in the active pipeline, three times more than 3-star hotels.