Urbeo Residential, the Irish residential investment platform backed by Starwood Capital Group, has announced the appointment of Richard Ball as a Partner as part of a trio of senior hires. Urbeo is building a platform of rental accommodation in Dublin and other major Irish cities, and also counts the Irish Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) amongst its investors.

Richard joins from Hibernia REIT plc, where he served as Chief Investment Officer for 5 years, and will be responsible for Urbeo’s investment and finance functions.

Urbeo has also recruited Anthony Sweetman to be its Development Director. Anthony joins from Rohan Holdings, where he was Head of Business Development, and has over as over 15 years’ industry experience both in Ireland and internationally. Anthony qualified as an architect at UCD, and will be responsible for Urbeo’s development functions.

Teresa Flattery, who joins Urbeo as Financial Controller, was previously Head of Finance for Redwood Real Estate and trained as a Chartered Accountant with EY.

Commenting on the appointments Frank Kenny, Founding Partner at Urbeo said: “I am delighted to be welcoming Richard, Anthony and Teresa to Urbeo. We have built a management team with strong investment, capital markets and asset management expertise, complemented by excellent understanding of the dynamics of the Irish market. We are looking forward to announcing significant progress on our acquisition pipeline in the coming weeks.”

Richard Ball, Partner, Urbeo said: “I am excited to be joining the Urbeo team as we work to create a build-to-rent platform of scale in Ireland. We are well-placed to execute on the many opportunities we see to invest capital in a market segment that is in its infancy in Ireland relative to other developed markets. There is a clear need in the Irish market for increased rental supply and our investments will help to meet this need.”

Urbeo is focused on matching investor needs for long-term, stable returns with those of tenants to build stable and sustainable communities of rental housing.