Press Release
Rapleys brings in Sam Van de Velde as Partner as it expands both education and charities offer
Rapleys brings in Sam Van de Velde as Partner as it expands both education and charities offer
19th May 2026
Rapleys has expanded its Education & Charities team with the appointment of Sam Van de Velde as Partner.
Sam joins from Knight Frank where he worked for nine years, joining as a residential graduate surveyor through to leading on numerous transactions as Associate Partner, advising on some £250m of property in total during his time there, with a strong focus on Education and ecclesiastical properties.
He will work alongside Partners Adam Harvey and Graham Smith, market leaders in church property, and further expand the team’s offer to deliver education transactions and valuation advice to schools and Universities. Rapleys already has strong professional expertise in Education with Retrofitting, Building Surveying and Project Management specialists across the UK.
Nick Fell, Head of Residential at Rapleys, said: “Our existing Charities team are known as market leaders in the Church sector, on top of our other Not For Profit instructions. In recent years we, as a business, have also built up a strong depth of expertise in Education, led by Building Consultancy in particular. Bringing in Samadds transactional capability in Education which will perfectly align with the wider national offering, and further reinforces the advice our Churches and wider Charity team delivers with plenty of opportunity to cross-sell services across the teams to the benefit of clients.”
Sam added: “I have been following Rapleys’ work in this sector for a while as market leaders in Church property transactions and latterly their ongoing growth story across the UK. The opportunity to join a people-focused business with a strong strategic growth plan and for me to help build a bigger team is incredibly exciting. The education property sector has seen a number of challenges in recent years from structural issues such as Reinforced Aerated Autoclave Concrete (RAAC), to contractual hurdles such as the current PFI situation and private side headwinds like VAT. Having a full service education team that can advise on strategy, valuation, building needs and transactions is becoming increasingly crucial for clients and I cannot wait to explore these synergies between the teams and work collaboratively with my new colleagues.”
Rapleys has been growing the business steadily over the last four years, adding expertise across all four core divisions (Building Consultancy, Commercial, Planning, Residential) both in response to and to pre-empt changing trends and requirements. As well as bolstering Education, Rapleys has launched a Health & Safety service, a Retrofitting team and brought in Building Safety experts. In Commercial, it has added an office agency team, a retail & leisure agency team and a hospitality and hotels team. In Planning, new teams have been set up in Bristol, Birmingham and Manchester as well as Data Centre and Local Authority experts added in London, whilst in Residential, the Division has expanded its Land Development Agency team, grown its Public Sector offering with huge success and increased its Affordable Housing work.
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Key contacts
Gain national and local expertise through our multidisciplinary teams of experts.
Associate Partner & Head of Property Management
Claire Hutchcraft
Senior Surveyor – Cost Consultancy & Project Management
Harriet Beesley
Partner – Finance Director & Head of Central Services
Debbie Scaife
Partner – Head of Public Sector Development Consultancy
Jonathan Bernstein
Executive Assistant to the Residential division
Lisa Stratford
Marika Frost Executive Assistant to Managing Partner
Marika Frost
Senior Surveyor, Housing Consultancy (BCG)
Harrison Berkhauer-Smith
Partner – Joint Head of Central London Office Agency
Julian Leech
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