Robert Fourt

Robert is a Partner in the Gerald Eve planning & development and structured finance teams, based in the West End. He has been with the firm since 1986 and, in the mid-1990s, Robert managed the firm’s Polish operations. He has provided advice on a variety of commercial property throughout England and on mainland Europe. Robert has specialised in the field of development consultancy and finance including project co-ordination, strategic planning, financial and risk analysis, feasibility studies and the funding and bringing forward a wide range of schemes on behalf of public, private and corporate clients. Robert is an Honorary Visiting Fellow in the Faculty of Finance, Cass Business School, City University.

Robert’s experience has a strong transactional base particularly in devising practical solutions to complex property issuesand the subsequent structuring and negotiation of associated documentation. He has dealt with major acquisitions and disposals of real estate, a number of joint ventures, as well as land assembly and advice upon large mixed-use development schemes. Robert provides advice to many of the major UK development companies on financial viability in respect of affordable housing provision and planning obligations within schemes, with a particular focus on London and the south east.

Increasingly Robert has been asked to advise upon the risk associated with investment and development projects and how this can be quantified and managed. Robert is a contributing author to Applied Risk Analysis (2003); Real Options Analysis (2005); and Modelling Risk (2006, and 3rd Edition 2015) Certified Quantitative Risk Management 2015 published by Wiley. He was also invited to present a paper on Investment Holding Periods at the 2005 IPD/IPF conference. Robert also presented papers on UK real estate volatility and real options at the 2006 and 2007 European Real Estate Society conferences. He oversees the firm’s Finance and Investment research including the quarterly Investment Brief publication with a particular focus on research into development returns and commercial holding period investment analysis. Robert has presented regularly at Cass Business School, Reading University (Henley Business School) and the Amsterdam School of Real Estate, as well as the RICS CPD Foundation.

Robert is an experienced expert witness who has provided evidence upon valuation, financial, viability, and development matters at various public inquiries, arbitrations, Lands Tribunal and in the High Court.

Robert also sits on the RICS Working Party into Financial Viability in Planning and was instrumental in producing Guidance Note 94/2012; the IPD Steering Group on UK Commercial Property Development Returns and advises London First and the Westminster Property Association on financial viability matters in respect of the London Plan, Crossrail and London-wide development issues; and is a member of the advisory board of the MSc Sustainable Urban Development, University of Oxford.