Strutt & Parker has today announced the appointment of Richard Harris as head of its newly created alternative capital markets team.

The team will provide specialist advice on healthcare, student accommodation, PRS and hotel real estate sectors.

Harris joins Strutt & Parker from Vector Property Consultants, a specialist healthcare investment advisory business, which he established in 2004; prior to this he spent 10 years in the national markets investment team at Strutt & Parker.

Strutt & Parker has previously serviced the alternative capital markets from its existing brokerage teams.

The appointment forms part of Strutt & Parker’s ongoing expansion strategy and follows the recent announcement of its alliance with real estate capital advisory firm, Bayhead Advisers, with which it has teamed up to provide combined real estate and financing advice to investors.

Damian Cronk, head of commercial at Strutt & Parker, said: “Last year the alternative investment sector was the second largest investment class, after offices, with £14bn of assets traded.  Recruiting industry specialists is essential to our plans for growth and Richard’s understanding of the alternative investment sector will allow us to enhance the services we are able to offer our clients. The needs of our clients, particularly investors, are becoming increasingly diverse and we are meeting these with teams of experts able to advise on a range of complex transactions”.