Shaz Sharif

Expertise

Shaz is a highly-regarded authority in residential development and urban regeneration law, renowned for helping shape ambitious housing and mixed-use schemes predominantly in the South. With over 10 years’ experience spear-heading high-stakes projects, she has advised FTSE 250 housebuilders, investors and public-private consortia on transformative developments – from £300m+ urban regeneration ventures to innovative Build to Rent (BTR) portfolios and strategic land.

A trusted strategic advisor, Shaz guides clients through the full lifecycle of complex projects: structuring joint ventures and funding partnerships, her niche expertise spans:

• large-scale regeneration: delivering phased, multi-asset developments in dense urban environments;
• forward-funded PRS/ BTR: structuring investor-ready frameworks that meet the rigorous demands of institutional investors;
• public sector collaboration: aligning public authority priorities with private sector delivery, from NHS surplus land, Homes England sites to brownfield regeneration.

Shaz is recognised for unlocking value in complex urban site – from heritage-led redevelopments to infrastructure-heavy brownfield transformations. Shaz has a unique “knack for unlocking problems” and “combines technical mastery with commercial pragmatism”.

How do you help clients?

Clients trust me to cut through the noise of their most pressing challenges: whether that be untangling convoluted joint ventures, unlocking value in difficult brownfield sites, or aligning competing priorities across developers, investors, planners and communities.

I thrive on partnering with clients to blend technical expertise, strategic insight, and hard-won industry relationships into solutions that don’t just work, but transform. Whether it’s resurrecting a derelict factory into a thriving mixed-use hub or structuring a £250m deal that reshapes an entire town’s future, I am at my best when the stakes are high and the path is challenging. Where others see roadblocks, I see blueprints for innovation.

What drives me? Helping our clients succeed and knowing that behind every contract negotiated, every risk mitigated, that together with our clients, we have enabled a family to move into a better home, a community to gain a vital school, or a city to breathe new life into forgotten corners – turning complexity into legacy, one groundbreaking project at a time.

Experience

1. Spearheaded the joint venture acquisition of a landmark 50-hectare Northampton development (1,100 homes, primary school, community centre), securing ‘Deal of the Year’ at the 2022 Insider Midlands Residential Property Awards. Praised by the judges for mastering complexity to unlock area-wide regeneration” this £300m+ GDV scheme sets a blueprint for collaboration in strategic urban expansion.
2. Pioneered the phased acquisition of a brownfield Exeter site (400 homes, 65 senior living units, critical infrastructure), orchestrating alignment across four stakeholders and forward-funded sub-sale to a Build-to-Rent operator. This innovative deal earned ‘Deal of the Year’ at the 2023 Insider Media’s Residential Property Awards – the judges lauding the scheme’s complexity and phased delivery.
3. Advised on the acquisition at Hayes’ Old Vinyl Factory (81 homes, 11 sqft retail/ commercial space, with shell-and-core leaseback), a pivotal phase in the £230m regeneration of this iconic site into 640 homes and circa 620,000 sqft mixed-use space. Navigated intricate development constraints and structure considerations to accelerate delivery.
4. Devised bespoke conditional agreements for a PLC housebuilder’s £250m GDV Aylesbury project, embedding deferred payments, turn overage to align/ risk reward across a phased rollout.
5. Championed public-private sector partnership innovation via a £105m infrastructure-led brownfield portfolio acquisition, deploying conditional agreements, building leases and subleases to RPs, construction obligations and dynamic overage structures to balance pace, affordability and viability in post-industrial urban renewal.