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Montagu Evans and Savills Announce Senior Appointments in Residential and Rural Teams

Montagu Evans has appointed George Tsielepis as a partner in its residential valuation team. Savills has named Simon Hillier as director in its Oxford rural team.

Montagu Evans continues its series of senior hires with the addition of George Tsielepis, a residential valuation specialist. Tsielepis joins from Knight Frank, where he was a partner in the Residential Investment Valuation division. He brings over 18 years of experience advising on valuations across the build-to-rent (BTR), private rented sector (PRS), co-living, single-family housing, and wider residential development markets. His previous clients have included institutional lenders, funders, brokers, and developers such as HSBC, Macquarie, NatWest, and Aldar.

Before his time at Knight Frank, Tsielepis was Head of Valuation at Anderson, Wilde & Harris, where he helped establish the firm’s cross-sector valuation team. At Montagu Evans, he will support the growth of the Residential Valuation team, which has valued more than £3bn of residential assets over the past 12 months. The team, led by Oliver Chivers, provides valuation advice across the living sector, including development, investment, and stock valuations for loan security, acquisitions, and financial reporting. Recent senior hires at Montagu Evans also include Cecilia Fellows from Carter Jonas, Will Lingard from CBRE, and John Weir, who is set to join as Head of Planning in October from the Church Commissioners for England.

Savills has appointed Simon Hillier as a director in its Oxford rural team, expanding its expertise in rural portfolio management. Hillier joins with more than 12 years of experience in asset management, advising institutional funds and private clients across the east of England. In his previous role, he managed portfolios comprising around 30 development projects at various stages of delivery. Hillier has experience negotiating option agreements for landowners, structuring promotion agreements, partnerships, and conditional contracts, as well as overseeing portfolio performance, tenancy management, rental matters, and health and safety compliance. In his new role, he will advise institutional clients on strategic asset management, promotion agreements, development partnerships, and opportunities to maximise land value.

These appointments reflect ongoing growth and strengthening of expertise in both the residential and rural property sectors, relevant to letting agents and inventory clerks monitoring market leadership and valuation trends.