Gurner hires property expert as CIO

Gurner Group has appointed a high-profile property executive as its first investment chief.

Rahul Bharara joins after a nine-year stint at Credit Suisse, where he was managing director and head of Australian real estate coverage,

In that role, he worked on several high-profile transactions with both public and private property groups and brings significant experience in strategic advisory, capital relationships -  wholesale and listed - and structured finance to the group.

Earlier, he worked at Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch.

Gurner Group chief executive Tim Gurner said as the group continues to evolve into an operator, manager, developer and capital-light developer of city-defining projects, Bharara's experience and impressive track record of working with diverse capital and property groups will be invaluable.

"Rahul's appointment outlines our commitment to funds management, capital partnering and asset management with our ultimate goal of creating value for our investors and providing best-in-class products for our residents,' he said.

"We're aiming to be the partner of choice for investments across build-to-rent and build-to-sell, hotels and other accommodation sectors which draw upon our decade of experience in the premium Australian residential market, giving us an unrivalled knowledge of both the customers and the product.

" We know from experience that global capital is keeping a close eye on the Australian residential market  and as migration roars back and population growth continues to boom, we are ready to make the most of these conditions."

The group's current assets under the management of $5.1 billion include its work across joint venture partnerships, which will extend further as landowners, like-minded fund managers, global institutional funds, and family offices choose to work with the group, according to Gurner.

For his part, Bharara said it was an exciting time to be joining Gurner -a company with a multi-billion dollar national pipeline of accommodation-focused real estate products in a supply-constrained market.
Late last year, Southern Cross Austero finance chief Nick McKechnie moved across to Gurner in the same role.