Rapleys Continues its strategic growth mission with Pippa Harrison as Head of Hospitality

– Pippa joins from AY, where she was Head of Hotels & PBSA Capital Markets

– Follows acquisition of AY retail team in 2025

– Rapleys has grown its Commercial Division significantly over the last two years adding retail, offices, future fuels, and bolstering investment 

UK, March 2026 – Rapleys has continued to grow strategically with the appointment of Pippa Harrison from Avison Young (AY) thus launching its new Hospitality service and further diversifying its Commercial Division.

Pippa Harrison, who was Head of Hotels & PBSA Capital Markets at Avison Young will now lead a new Hospitality and Operational Real Estate team at Rapleys, with further growth to ensue.  The move follows other recent acquisitions in its Commercial Division including a team of seven retail agency and investment experts brought in from AY last year, led by Dan Kent, and the purchase of office experts Mellersh & Harding.

Pippa specialises in acquisitions and disposals, development funding, income strips, ground rents, sales and leasebacks and strategic capital markets advisory and has over 25 years’ experience of hospitality and operational real estate. She is a member of the RICS Property Investment Forum advising on hospitality and has transacted over £4 billion of assets to date. She has also worked previously as a Director at CBRE, Associate Director at Savills and started her career at Christie & Co.

Robert Clarke, Senior Partner at Rapleys, said: “Our business strategy over the last three years has been focused on diversified growth and our Commercial Division has benefited from significant investment in new people and, thereby, enhanced client offers. Pippa’s appointment is the continuation of this journey, and she will lead a new team, within our Commercial Division, dealing with the hospitality sector and related assets. This will complement our strong sectoral teams, elsewhere in the Division, advising in the automotive/roadside/future fuels, retail and office space. We are extremely happy to have Pippa on board, with other appointments to follow (in the hospitality team) in due course. We are looking forward to our Commercial teams working closely together and linking in with the other Divisions of the practice (Building Consultancy, Planning and Residential) to deliver joined-up services and innovative solutions for our broadening client base – which is a key part of the Rapleys culture. We will continue to add great people, teams and services in line with our existing growth plan over the coming months.”

Pippa Harrison said “I am delighted to be joining Rapleys at this exciting time of strategic growth in their commercial business, bringing my 25 years of specialist expertise and client base to strengthen the sector specific advice we can offer our clients.  As we enter another phase of the investment cycle, experience and business astuteness will offer our clients the advice and support they require to successfully navigate these times. There has been a huge influx of capital seeking to enter hotels and other operational real estate markets, especially in the form of long income.  We are identifying much more complex but flexible structuring of product, and I look forward to advising our clients on these types of investments.”

Rapleys has been strategically growing for three years now, building up and diversifying its business to add services and people that will serve its increasing client portfolio. As well as Commercial, where it has brought in new clients such as Sainsburys, Stansted Airport and Boots, Rapleys has added several Building Consultancy services (including Health & Safety, Retrofitting and Measured Surveys), Planning (Datacentres and Renewables) and Residential (Public Sector focus). In 2025, the business also launched a new Cardiff team, which it has since trebled in size, and doubled the size of its Manchester and Birmingham teams.