Savills hires former JLL EMEA alternatives boss

Savills has appointed Ollie Saunders as its new head of self storage. Saunders joins Savills after nine years at JLL, where he was latterly head of EMEA alternatives valuation advisory before his departure last year.  Before JLL, Saunders worked as an equity partner at Deloitte following its merger with Drivers Jonas. He went on to lead its real estate valuations business. Saunders has established a reputation within the European self-storage sector and has worked across the UK and EMEA regions covering M&A, valuation, consultancy and capital markets advice, which he will continue to focus on in his new role. Saunders will work within the operational capital markets team, based at the firm’s Margaret Street head office in London. Saunders said: “I have always been passionate about the sector and will bring my first-hand transactional experience and creativity, together with analytical valuation professionalism, and  industry knowledge, to the team at Savills.” Peter Allen, head of operational capital markets at Savills, said Saunders is the “undisputed expert in this rapidly growing sector, having advised on the majority of the important trades across the UK and Europe”. Allen added: “The synergies self storage has with the wider living sectors are compelling and we are excited to now be able to offer our clients access to the depth of knowledge he commands.”