For many HNW investors, property remains the backbone of a well-balanced portfolio.
However, for a property investment to be worthwhile, it needs to be approached strategically and with a deep understanding of the market, allowing it to deliver a steady income, long-term growth and act as a buffer against volatility in other parts of a portfolio.
Building and managing a significant real estate portfolio is rarely straightforward. As markets become more volatile, interest rates fluctuate and regulatory frameworks evolve, seeking specialist advice is essential to establishing a clear strategy.
In the Property Investment, Finance and Management Services 2026 Index, Spear’s highlights the advisers operating at the top of this field.
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[See also: Prime central London prices fall back to 2013 levels, Coutts finds]
These are professionals with access to prime investment opportunities (frequently off-market) as well as the technical expertise to structure acquisitions intelligently. Their work can span a wide array of expertise, from sourcing and underwriting deals to arranging finance, overseeing development projects and ensuring assets are managed in line with long-term financial goals.
Explore the other rankings within the 2026 Spear’s Property Indices:
- Best property brokers
- Best country specialists
- Best buying agents
- Best relocation and shipping specialists
- Best property lawyers
- Best lettings specialists
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Our research this year finds that an increasing number of brokers and buying agents are offering in-house property management services. Firms like Eccord and Black Brick Property Solutions, for example, have growing property management teams who handle everything including restocking fridges, checking security or managing heating systems when clients are away.
‘Most household policies state that you need someone in the house every 14 days as standard,’ Simmi Sangha, who runs the private home management service at Eccord, tells Spear’s.
This approach extends to other services too: instead of dealing with separate brokers, lenders, project managers and asset managers, HNWs can increasingly work with a single team that manages the entire investment. From buying and financing to refurbishment, leasing and eventual exit, everything is coordinated and planned in a way where property isn’t treated as a mere asset but as part of a client’s overall wealth strategy.
Alex Newall, founder and managing director of Hanover Private, explains that his firm functions similar to a private office, allowing him to look after ‘a small number of families’ and to ‘get to know them very well.’
And with portfolios growing more complex and increasingly international, that streamlined approach is, unsurprisingly, gaining popularity.
Click the links below to jump to a section of this article:
- Methodology
- The best property investment, finance and management services: some names to know
- The best property investment, finance and management services: the complete list
- Contact us
Methodology
Each year, the Spear’s Research Unit reassesses and refreshes its rankings of the leading providers in each sector by gathering data from and about the advisers and firms themselves, assessing submission forms, collating nominations, carrying out peer reviews, reviewing data from third-party sources, gathering references and recommendations, canvassing experts and conducting hundreds of interviews.
Advisers are evaluated using a proprietary scoring system that assigns different weightings to certain attributes. These scores feed directly into each new set of rankings in the Spear’s Indices. Each of these indices are published first online (according to the research calendar) and then in print. Print publication takes the form of the annual Spear’s 500 directory, which includes the top advisers in every index.
[See also: A guide to The Spear’s 500: Everything you need to know]
Each featured adviser is profiled on spears500.com. The site allows users to search the Spear’s database of more than 4,000 entities to find one (or more) to meet their specific requirements by filtering for specific attributes such as an adviser’s location, their specialist expertise and information about their client base.
The best property investment, finance and management services: some names to know
Alex Newall
- Focus: Prime central London
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Hanover Private
Alex Newall, the founder and managing director of Hanover Private, has acquired and sold many £10 million-plus houses in prime central London and the countryside over his decades-long career. But Newall wears many hats, priding himself on being an adviser who has also helped his UHNW clientele acquire ‘numerous superyachts, a football club and an array of other assets’, he tells Spear’s.
Newall explains that Hanover functions similar to a private office, where he ‘looks after a small number of families and manag[es] their affairs … I get to know them very well.’
Read Alex Newall’s full profile on Spears500.com
Justin Mason
- Focus: Prime and super-prime property valuation
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Mason Valuation Consultants
‘We’ve really set out how we work as a trusted adviser to trusted advisers,’ says Justin Mason, founder of Mason Valuation Consultants. Based in Mayfair, the firm focuses solely on the ‘most prestigious’ homes in prime central London and beyond, and places independence at the heart of its proposition.
Mason, who spent more than 10 years at Knight Frank, understands London’s golden postcodes better than most. ‘The property profession in central London cannot operate any other way than on a bedrock of trust,’ he tells Spear’s. ‘Advice [in this industry] needs to be as robust as possible, but in order to give that advice, it needs to be built upon robust facts and metrics.’
Read Justin Mason’s full profile on Spears500.com
Gulnara Long
- Focus: Sustainable property portfolio growth
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Longview Advisors
Longview Advisors founder Gulnara Long has developed a ‘modern advisory service’ to help international UHNWs make sense of the UK property landscape.
Receptive to the diversity of client needs, Long’s broad outlook allows her to deliver property solutions that dovetail with ‘family ambitions and financial goals’ – whether they be related to property portfolio management or UK investments. ‘It’s always great to do something that you know your clients could not have done without you,’ she tells Spear’s.
Read Gulnara Long’s full profile on Spears500.com
The best property investment, finance and management services: the complete list
Click on the individual names to be directed to more detailed profiles of each adviser on The Spear’s 500 website. The table is ordered by ranking and then alphabetically by surname.
Contact us
- To apply for inclusion in The Spear’s 500, complete our submission form.
- For further information about rankings, please email research@spearswms.com; we aim to respond to all queries within two working days.
- For commercial enquiries and questions relating to enhanced profiles, please contact Commercial Director Shady Elkholy: shady.elkholy@spearswms.com
- To keep up to date with the Spear’s 500, subscribe to our magazine, newsletter and follow Spear’s on Linkedin and Instagram.
- If you have missed calendar deadlines for our research cycles in 2025, you can still register your interest for updates about upcoming research and rankings.
- Click here to order a print copy of The Spear’s 500.
With additional reporting by Livia Giannotti
