ELM Group announces the appointment of Paul Milner and John Osborn to its board as it enters an unprecedented period of growth.
The appointments have been made to add further expertise to the board as the property management company continues to transition following a major property acquisition which doubled the number of its managed and owned property across the country.
After acquiring 1,368 units of retirement property from housing provider Orbit in November 2023, the organisation has been onboarding the properties in tranches to ensure consistent service delivery across its portfolio. With the third tranche fully onboarded in March 2024, the team’s focus is now on ensuring the new team members and leaseholders are fully supported.
Paul Milner joins ELM Group having spent 35 years as a chartered surveyor in the construction, infrastructure, facilities management and housing sectors, spending the majority of his career at Balfour Beatty where he was Commercial Director overseeing UK and international businesses. More recently, Paul spent the last 8 years as Managing Director of the UK’s largest on-campus student housing business, with 40,000 units under management.
Paul said: “I’m delighted to be joining ELM Group at such an exciting phase in the company’s growth plans. I hope to bring some of the learnings from my experience to support the management team and continue the great work that the Group does to benefit its colleagues and residents.”
John Osborn will join the board with extensive property fund management experience, most recently as Fund Manager of the Aviva Linked Property Fund, valued at around £3.5bn, and previously with AXA IM. John is also a Non-Executive Board Member at Thrive Homes - a housing association with over 5,000 homes.
John commented: “I am attracted by ELM Group's impressive record of innovation, ethical approach, and growth ambitions. I’m joining at an exciting time as a substantial acquisition is onboarded and look forward to applying my commercial real estate experience together with my non-executive housing sector experience to provide an additional perspective which complements that of the accomplished Executive team and Non-Executive Board Members.”
Lorraine Collis, Chief Executive at ELM Group, added: “The addition of John and Paul to the Board will play a huge part in helping us to navigate this exciting new phase of growth and ensure that we maintain the same level of professionalism and service excellence we’ve become known for.
John and Paul bring with them a variety of unique skills in the property sector which I’m sure will greatly benefit the business, and I look forward our future achievements as ELM Group with both new Board Members supporting and guiding our business strategy.”
ELM Group manages retirement communities across the South of England and has become one of the UK’s leading retirement leasehold management companies. The company originated in 1971 as Retirement Lease Housing Association (RLHA) a charitable organisation founded by a group of volunteers with a shared vision - to pioneer the development of sheltered housing for sale to people of retirement age. Sheltered housing for rent was already widely available, but the founders wanted to introduce the concept to those who valued owning their own property and saw the benefits of a purpose-built Estate, with onsite support from an Estate Manager.
Having built upon their enviable reputation in the independent retirement living sector, RLHA are proud to be one of the South of England’s leading leasehold property management companies.
