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In conversation with 鈥� Quintain Living鈥檚 Head of Operations Grace Oyesoro. She wanted to be a banker, but luckily BTR came calling

Tell us a bit about yourself and your path to Quintain Living

Like many of the people you鈥檝e featured in this series, I ended up in this industry completely by accident. So, if you’d asked 18-year-old me what I was going to do, I would have said an investment banker because, you know, all those obvious perks.

I went to university, studying Economics and Politics at York, but my final year didn’t quite go to plan. There was a lot of stuff going on for me personally and so the internship on the graduate scheme I had secured did not go ahead and it took me back to square one, in my search for my career first step.

I had to explore, what do I want to do with my life? So, while I was trying to figure that out, I got a job with a commercial property firm and basically went from being an office manager and PA to running a 21-storey building, which the owners were simultaneously trying to secure permitted development rights while also attracting new occupiers.

I worked there for a couple of years before the company decided to go into the residential space, so I moved across to residential 鈥� my first introduction to Build to Rent, although as far as I was concerned, it was just a block which needed managing.

I started in that very small block, 80 units or so in Kilburn, and ended up as Operations Manager as the company built more blocks. Ultimately, I had sites across Kilburn, Croydon, Watford and Swiss Cottage.

I grew up around the corner from Wembley Park, I was born in a hospital probably 15 minutes away from where I’m sitting now. And so, when I thought I ticked all my boxes at my previous company, Quintain, was launching into BtR and Quintain Living was a new up and coming management company. I’d seen it and I thought it would be a great place to work, but there were no vacancies at the time.

I got in touch with new recruiters and then out of the blue one said they had a job description for me that sounded perfect, but I had to sign an NDA and they couldn鈥檛 tell me the name of the company.

I did that and it turned out to be for Quintain.

I’m a great believer in things aligning so I joined Quintain back in March 2019 as an Operations Manager when we had c.500 units and less than 1,000 residents. We’ve got to a place now where Quintain Living manages over 3,300 BtR units and over 5,000 residents, so it’s been a fantastic journey to be part of.

It must mean more to you because you鈥檙e local

It does, because I remember back when I was a kid and it used to be you came here for the Stadium or the Arena or back in the day you had Wembley Park markets. Nothing else. It was just a load of flat surface car parks. So yes, being part of Quintain鈥檚 transformation of Wembley Park has an extra kind of special meaning for me.

It has also benefitted Wembley as a whole and if you look at the make-up of our team, recruiting locally wouldn鈥檛 have been the main, driving force but we have quite a few people from the area. That鈥檚 especially true on the construction and maintenance side and we have certain targets around making sure that the benefits are definitely being felt locally.

What does a day in your life look like 鈥� what鈥檚 top of your in-tray?

At this point in the year, it’s peak season where we see a lot of our move-outs, move-ins and renewals happening. I’m particularly focused on refining our processes and enhancing our residents鈥� experience. What’s been great about having that massive growth at Quintain Living is that you get to see what works and then you can pivot and try something else. We are constantly evolving because what might have worked a couple of years ago may need updating because we are dealing with much bigger volumes. 聽The growth in leasing homes, sight unseen using our digital tools has been wonderful to see.

I’m in the final stage now of making sure we are completely covered in terms of anticipating things that could possibly go wrong, that we鈥檝e learned from any pain points that we felt in the past and have equipped our teams with all the tools they need,

For example, we have international students who all arrive at a similar time ahead of the academic year, are all usually moving in at the same time – often they’re on the same flights 鈥� so we ask ourselves 鈥榓re we equipped for 30 people turning up at front desk at the same time, and can we give each of them the best experience?鈥� Yes, is the answer. 聽

We had almost 600 move-ins in just one month last summer, was it a good experience for each of them, was it as good for last one as it was for the first? That鈥檚 so important because first impressions count.

Beyond this, the ongoing resident experience is even more important and essential for us to be able to build a community here at Wembley Park. This takes the collaboration of a lot of hearts, hands and minds across the business 鈥� given that we鈥檝e got residents who have lived with us since 2016, I鈥檇 like to think we鈥檙e doing something right!

What are your resident demographics at Wembley Park?

Our demographics vary from building to building. We’ve what I call seven 鈥榙evelopment pods鈥� even though they are all in the same estate. Each is distinct in character and really has a different demographic.

There are lots of BTR operators out there and tonnes of lovely apartments so ultimately we can’t just keep replicating the same model in terms of design and resident experience.

That means, each of our buildings has a different vibe: Some that attract more of the younger crowd because they have open social spaces and a fantastic podium area and this is reflected in the interior design too. Some cater more for families and have a lovely kids play areas.

There’s something for someone at every stage of their life. You’ve got housemates, you get a partner and then you have a family (and maybe pets), and the ideal is that you can move from development to development and go to the one that serves you for your life stage.

Some people have met their partners at our social events and that鈥檚 a really lovely thing to see, obviously from a business perspective but actually the community aspect of it is super important. You don’t want it to just be developments with people in them who have no attachment to the area, or to the team and then just move on.

So, where do you think BTR is going in the next 5 to 10 years?

BTR has now got more maturity in the UK and I think having these different demographics suggests there might be a focus away from the brilliant, all-singing, all-dancing spaces with higher price points.

There are people out there who just want a nice, clean apartment without the bells and whistles, and I think that’s where we need to pay some attention. There are older renters who want the convenience of downsizing their owned homes to have access to concierge, fixed expenditure costs and an allotment rather than a garden to manage.

What underpins successful BTR is a well-managed space. You need a space where you’ve got customer service and a landlord who’s going to deal with maintenance issues in a timely manner.

If you don’t want to pay extra for the super cinema rooms and that sort of stuff, there should be an offering for you. I think that’s something that we now need to look at.

Also, we can’t ignore the fact that there’s a housing crisis and BTR goes a long way towards increasing supply and meeting rental demand. I believe it can go further still by being accessible to a wider proportion of the population and by providing a variety of price points. 聽Our buildings are tenure blind and include a discount market rent product but a third of the homes Quintain are building at Wembley Park are across the spectrum of affordable housing.

Previously with BTR if you wanted to get involved you had to be someone who was developing and an operator. But now as we move on, we鈥檝e gone through the process ourselves; we’ve sold a couple of our buildings, but we’re still third-party managing them and I think we are going to see more of this just as the has model evolved in the US.

Do you find the BTR sector is more socially conscious than other commercial real estate?

I’m part of the EDI Committee for the ARL but I do think there’s still some more work to be done. 聽A large part of that is addressing the fact that a lot of people still don’t know what BTR is and don’t know just how many career paths there are in the sector.

I’ve done a couple of career events where you’ll say you work in property, and people think: 鈥淥h, do I have to work in a construction site, I don’t think I could do that?鈥�

Actually, it鈥檚 not all about construction. Are you creative? There’s marketing, there’s communications, there’s design. And I do think we’ve got a way to go in terms of flying that BTR flag.

Just looking at our team, the majority are people without property backgrounds. They came from other industries, many in the operations team with a customer service focus. And I do think for BTR to really take flight, you need the expertise from other industries, and you need to adopt some of their practices, which you can’t do if you don’t have a diverse workforce, right?

As for me, as Quintain Living鈥檚 Head of Operations I鈥檓 super proud of myself for getting here, but I can’t lie that there have been times in my career where I’ve looked above me and, to borrow that phrase, 鈥榩ale, male and stale鈥� is what I’ve seen and I鈥檝e thought, well, maybe I can only get to a certain point …

That feeling is not a nice one to have, and I think we need to address that, because it’s one thing to attract people to the industry, but it’s another to retain them. A large part of retention is seeing a career path. I don’t think the path is necessarily linear聽 because what we’ve seen here is, as the company’s grown, we’ve had loads of lateral moves and we’ve had people going to do different things. I think it’s something we need to work on.

What keeps you awake at night?

I’ve been quite lucky in that I’ve had people around me who have helped push me into developing. And the question I find myself asking is: 鈥淥h my God, am I doing enough for others, so they always feel the help and the safety that I鈥檝e felt at points and which supported in getting me to the point that I’m at?鈥� I just really want to pay that forward. Mentor schemes both in our company and through other industry bodies are vitally important to help ensure those working their way up are nurtured.

I think the phrase is 鈥榮ending the lift back down鈥�.

It鈥檚 probably one of those things I feel more as the oldest sibling of three 鈥� you鈥檙e constantly trying to help the next one along. Are we doing right by the people who are coming up? It’s a really important value for me.

You鈥檙e on the ARL EDI committee. How can that agenda be promoted in this anti-woke world

It feels as though the EDI agenda has a long way to go, it is still seen as a 鈥榥ice to have鈥� by many whereas the benefit of having a diverse workforce is clearly evidenced in the numbers.

What I have found from firsthand experience is that many EDI related steering groups are attended by allies and the people who are in the minority. These groups are all well and good because people can share experiences, but often these agendas can feel like an echo chamber, preaching to the converted. The people you need to invite into the room are the ones who aren’t in the minority, who do have the influence in their businesses, who are higher up and more senior. They are the ones who need to hear it and, if that happens, the spaces must be really open and judgement free because you can get a bit of defensiveness.

We need to address the EDI agenda like any other business challenge and I think the people who have the most influence in their businesses need to be the ones in those rooms, listening and having constructive conversations that move the EDI agenda forward.

When I go to events such as industry conferences, I often look around to find I鈥檓 the only black woman in the room or taking part on a panel. 聽This feels strange because Quintain Living is especially diverse in quite a lot of ways.

We need to focus on the connection between diversity and what it can bring commercially. It should be done because it鈥檚 the right thing to do but also because in real estate we are developing and managing homes for a diverse customer base, so to thrive, our business has to diverse to ensure we identify and meet the needs of our customer.

The work that the newly formed 聽ARL EDI Committee, on which I sit, has and will continue to do聽 involves collating and using data to demonstrate the business benefits and social value of a rich, diverse and inclusive culture in BTR. We need to continue this work, to grow and develop the dataset so it can be used as a tool to ensure EDI is at the heart of our sector.

That sounds very much like your passion and a call to action. Is there anything else you鈥檇 like to add?

I know I鈥檓 really lucky to be in a job where I enjoy what I do. There鈥檚 a lot of people out there who don鈥檛 have that privilege.

The best thing about working in Build to Rent is it involves all sorts and no two days are ever the same. I can honestly say I鈥檓 never bored at work and almost every day I think: 鈥淥h I haven鈥檛 seen this one before!鈥�

And yeah, it keeps you on your toes!