Morgan Garfield and the UK-origin dealmakers quietly building institutional real estate scale across Europe

£62.8 billion in UK deals and a new generation of cross-border principals

UK commercial real estate investment volumes reached £62.8 billion for the full year of 2025, according to CBRE. Across the continent, European commercial real estate investment totalled €244.5 billion over the same period. Behind those headline figures, a cohort of UK-origin or UK-based dealmakers has been steadily assembling institutional-grade platforms that stretch well beyond domestic borders. Morgan Garfield, Fabio Longo, Nigel Webb, and Ben Oldman each represent a distinct but converging approach: leveraging deep British market expertise to capture value in European retail repositioning, special situations, development-stage lending, and alternative credit.

Their trajectories matter now because the market is entering an expansionary phase. Savills forecasts European real estate investment volumes to rise by around 18% in 2026 as pricing firms up and macroeconomic conditions stabilise. Schroders projects UK All Property total return at 9–10% for 2026 and 8% per annum over the next five years through 2030. In that environment, principals with proven operating capability, institutional relationships, and cross-border reach are best positioned to deploy capital at scale.

Who is Morgan Garfield and what is his investment thesis?

Morgan Garfield is one of the most consequential figures in UK retail real estate over the past decade. He co-founded Ellandi, growing the platform to more than 30 shopping centres under management valued in excess of £1.25 billion, according to the British Property Federation. Ellandi's strategy centred on acquiring community-anchored retail assets at discounts to replacement cost, repositioning them through active management, and extracting value from mixed-use densification and operational improvement.

That thesis culminated in a significant institutional outcome: the acquisition of Ellandi by NewRiver REIT in July 2024. The transaction consolidated one of the UK's largest community retail portfolios under a listed vehicle, validating the approach Garfield had championed for years. Community retail, long dismissed by institutional allocators chasing logistics and living sectors, had generated measurable returns through hands-on asset management rather than yield compression alone.

Garfield's influence now extends into industry governance. In March 2025, he was appointed Chair of the British Property Federation Retail Board, a position that places him at the centre of policy dialogue on UK retail property at a time when the sector faces both regulatory evolution and renewed investor interest. The role signals the industry's recognition that retail repositioning requires strategic leadership with operational credibility, not merely capital allocation.

The combination of a successful platform exit and a board-level policy role positions Garfield as a principal whose next moves will be closely watched by institutional investors across Europe. His expertise in community retail repositioning addresses a segment where pricing dislocation persists in multiple European markets, from southern Spain to secondary German cities.

How are Fabio Longo, Nigel Webb, and Ben Oldman extending British capital expertise into European markets?

Morgan Garfield is part of a broader pattern. Several UK-origin dealmakers have transitioned from traditional institutional roles or boutique platforms into positions of broader European influence, often through alternative credit, special situations, and strategic advisory.

Fabio Longo: from Bain Capital to hospitality-focused investing

Fabio Longo built and ran Bain Capital's Special Situations and Real Estate division in Europe, managing a $20 billion assets-under-management business, according to Mohari Hospitality. That track record in distressed and opportunistic capital deployment across multiple European jurisdictions gave Longo deep expertise in complex structuring, workout situations, and cross-border execution.

Longo subsequently joined Mohari Hospitality as Chief Investment Officer, pivoting that institutional skill set toward the hospitality sector. The move reflects a wider trend among seasoned special situations professionals who see the European hospitality market, particularly luxury and lifestyle segments, as offering risk-adjusted returns that traditional office and retail cannot match in the current cycle. His appointment brings institutional-grade governance and underwriting discipline to a sector historically dominated by owner-operators and family offices.

Nigel Webb: development expertise meets lending scale

Nigel Webb served as Head of Development at British Land until June 2023, overseeing more than 12 million square feet of development across the UK, according to Building Magazine. That portfolio encompassed some of the country's most complex mixed-use schemes, requiring coordination across planning, construction, leasing, and capital markets.

Webb has since taken on a non-executive director role at Precede Capital Partners, a real estate lending specialist that has arranged £1.7 billion in loans. The transition from development principal to lending governance reflects a structural shift in European real estate finance: experienced operators are migrating toward alternative lending platforms where their knowledge of construction risk, planning timelines, and asset quality adds direct underwriting value. For institutional allocators seeking exposure to European real estate debt, platforms with principals who have managed large-scale development programmes offer a differentiated risk assessment capability.

Ben Oldman: European mid-market alternative credit

Ben Oldman Partners manages over €1 billion in assets with a focus on the European mid-market, specialising in alternative credit, real estate-backed investments, and renewable energy, according to the firm. The platform occupies a segment of the market that remains structurally underserved by traditional bank lending, particularly for transactions in the €10 million to €75 million range where bespoke structuring and speed of execution create competitive advantages.

The firm's diversification across alternative credit and renewable energy reflects a thesis that the European mid-market increasingly rewards platforms capable of deploying capital across adjacent asset classes, reducing concentration risk while maintaining sector expertise. For institutional investors seeking co-investment opportunities or fund exposure in this segment, platforms with demonstrated mid-market origination capabilities represent a distinct value proposition.

The regulatory landscape shaping UK and European real estate in 2026

These dealmakers operate within a regulatory environment that continues to evolve. In England and Wales, the Renters' Rights Act 2025 consolidates and extends existing controls, including a ban on no-fault evictions, a shift from fixed terms to periodic tenancies, and restrictions on rent bidding, with provisions taking effect in stages from 1 May 2026. The legislation will reshape residential investment strategies for any platform with UK living-sector exposure.

In Ireland, the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2025, enacted in June 2025, introduces phased changes to rent control rules, strengthens tenant protections, and extends Rent Pressure Zones nationwide until at least February 2026, capping annual rent increases at the lower of 2% or CPI. For cross-border investors evaluating European residential markets, these regulatory frameworks require granular legal and operational expertise that favours experienced local principals over remote capital allocators.

Regulatory complexity, in practice, reinforces the competitive position of dealmakers like Garfield and Webb, whose deep familiarity with UK planning, leasing, and governance frameworks allows them to structure investments that account for policy risk from inception.

What does the 2026 recovery mean for UK-origin dealmakers?

The convergence of improving volumes, stabilising pricing, and structural capital gaps creates a favourable environment for principals who combine operating expertise with institutional networks. European real estate investment volumes are forecast to rise by around 18% in 2026, according to Savills. In the UK specifically, Schroders projects total returns of 9–10% for 2026, a level that will attract significant new allocations from pension funds, sovereign wealth vehicles, and insurance capital.

For dealmakers like Garfield, Longo, Webb, and Oldman, the recovery phase rewards precisely the capabilities they have assembled: operational turnaround skills in retail, special situations expertise in hospitality, development-informed lending governance, and mid-market alternative credit origination. These are principals who built their platforms during periods of market stress and repricing, and who now hold the relationships and track records necessary to attract institutional co-investment at scale.

GRI Institute has observed through its European events and member network that the current cycle favours operators and credit specialists over passive capital. The dealmakers profiled here embody that thesis. Their platforms are designed to generate returns through active management, structural complexity, and sector specialisation, not through leverage or market beta alone.

As European markets move deeper into the recovery phase, the institutions that partner with experienced, UK-origin principals will likely capture outsized opportunities in retail repositioning, hospitality, development lending, and alternative credit. The track records are established. The capital cycle is turning. The principals are in position.