Karen Williamson
Senior advisor
Home Office: London
Previous experience:
Aehta, Get Living, Grosvenor, Townends
After many years of working in the property industry Karen launched her own residential consultancy in April 2017 offering her experience of working in agency, client-side and within the burgeoning market of the build-to-rent. Since setting up her business, her client list has included Get Living London, Say Consulting, Institute of Residential Property Managers (IRPM), Tipi, Cortland, Lyvly, The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors and Seymours Lettings Agency.
She was previously an Associate Director at Get Living, one of the largest B2R operators in London. Get Living was four times awarded Landlord of the Year and East Village awarded the “Development of the Decade”. Main achievements included saving £1m+ by gaining exemption from the local Licensing scheme, designing Board Level protocols in order to protect off-shore status, co-authoring on-line standards and procedures manuals and being a Trustee of The East Village Trust which was endowed with £1m.
Karen sat on the Department of Community & Local Government’s ‘Private Rented Sector Affordability and Security Working Group’. She also sits on The Dispute Service forum and on the Education & Research Committee of the UK Apartments Association (UKAA). In addition, she writes course content for the PRS Build to Rent qualification run by Institute of Residential Property Managers.
Previously as an Associate Director at Grosvenor, Karen was responsible for the management of a mixed-use portfolio with an annual rental income of c£40m. The purpose was not only to maximise income but to ensure that Mayfair remained a top global destination for residents to live, work and relax. During her time there she spent 12 months on a change management project which resulted in a transformational re-structure and designed the re-training and upskilling of staff that was required as a result.
Karen is an Associate RICS, a Fellow of the Association of Residential Lettings Agents, a member of the Chartered Management Institute and The Property Redress Scheme. She has completed Neuro Linguistic Programming training and has an Executive Level IOSH qualification. She also delivers bespoke accredited Continual Professional Development (CPD) training.
