Savills hires two senior executives for student accommodation business in Australia and Zealand

With the Australian and New Zealand student accommodation markets set to benefit from the fastest growing foreign populations in the world, Savills has hired two experienced executives to look after its student business in these two countries.

Conal Newland is joining Savills from JLL where he was the national head of Student Accommodation. Newland has spent more than 10 years in the sector, in both Australia and the UK, and has been involved in several large-scale projects in the sector, including the University of Exeter (3,000 beds) and the University of Hertfordshire (2,500 beds).

Joining Newland is Rachel Coates, also from JLL, who has Student Accommodation advisory experience in both Australia and the UK. Together, they have more than 14 years combined sector-specific experience.

Based in Sydney, Newland will head the expansion of the student accommodation business alongside Coates. Both will be focusing on growing this platform in Australia and New Zealand.

“The student accommodation sector is a growing investment class welcomed by both local and international investors and with Conal and Rachel now on board, we can now be at the forefront of this growing platform," said Paul Craig, Savills CEO Australia & New Zealand.

Newland said more than $2 billion were invested in 2015 into development projects in the region.