Associate, Real Estate Asset Management

The advert is for an Associate on Ares' Asset Management team for retail and offices, supporting value creation, performance monitoring and the execution of business plans across a diversified portfolio with a focus on pan-European retail and offices. It is based in London but supports assets across Europe, working across direct holdings, joint ventures and co-invest vehicles, and reporting to a designated Principal or above. Source

Real estate is priced in yield rather than earnings multiples. The numbers that matter are net asset value, the investment method that divides passing rent by the initial yield, the EPRA measures, and four separate yield concepts, with the gap between passing rent and estimated rental value showing whether a building is cheap against its future earning power. Rate sensitivity is severe: a 50 basis point rise can take five to ten per cent off values in a quarter through cap rate expansion. Source

Asset management inside a property fund is the job after the purchase, not the purchase itself. The advert's own list, business plans, net operating income, occupancy, leasing velocity, renewals, arrears, operating expenses, capex and refinancing, is what an asset manager does with buildings the fund already owns. If you want to be underwriting acquisitions, this seat supports that work rather than doing it.

The Associate reports to a designated Principal or above but works day to day with different senior members of the Asset Management team across the portfolio, and partners with the deal team, investments, portfolio management, finance, tax, legal and ESG. Externally the seat is Ares' day to day interface with operating partners, property managers and key third-party service providers, running weekly and monthly operating reviews and quarterly business reviews. Source

About 7 people have held London roles at Ares Real Estate PE since 2018, against 6 at Ares Infrastructure and 6 at Ares European Direct Lending. These are small London teams, so a seat here is one of a handful and the people interviewing you are the people you would sit next to.

About 88 people have held London roles at Ares Management as a whole since 2018, spread across its real estate, infrastructure and direct lending teams in the city.

The scope runs the whole asset lifecycle: acquisitions onboarding and operational due diligence, annual budgeting and quarterly IRR reforecasting with operating partners, capex programmes from scope definition to delivery tracking, IPD data submissions and the reporting database behind them, investor reporting and due diligence requests, refinancing with lender models and covenant tracking, and exits down to data room readiness, buyer questions, SPA negotiation and management presentations. Source

A large part of the role is governance and data: preparing dashboards, KPI packs, minutes and action trackers, reviewing partner reporting and assumptions, driving standardisation of reporting templates and definitions across the sector, ensuring data quality and version control across models and forecasts, and maintaining insurance, health and safety and regulatory registers. Source

Read those two lists together and you can see how the week is actually spent. This is a control and coordination seat with modelling attached, not a modelling seat with administration attached, and the real skill it builds is running external operating partners. Worth asking at interview what share of the week is reporting and governance.

Ares asks for three to five years' experience in asset management, investment banking, portfolio management, investment management, transaction services, corporate finance or an adjacent analytical role within financial services or real assets, with a demonstrable track record in business plan execution, operating partner relationships, budgeting and forecasting and value creation, experience working across jurisdictions and with third-party operators mainly in Western European jurisdictions, and exposure to acquisitions support, refinancing or disposition processes primarily in retail and office. Source

On qualifications and tools it asks for a master's degree or equivalent in finance, economics, business, engineering or a related field, advanced Excel including financial modelling and scenario and sensitivity analysis, comfort with PowerPoint, and familiarity with Power BI or similar as a plus, plus an ability to travel. Source

This is a lateral hire and the specificity is the gate: retail and office assets in Western European jurisdictions, not real estate in general, and hands-on work with operating partners rather than a modelling seat at a distance. Two candidates with the same three years will be separated by whether they have sat opposite an operator and argued about a budget.