Martin Towns, Global Head of Real Estate – The Playbook Behind M&G's £50bn Global Real Estate Business

This week, I sat down with Martin Towns to unpack a career built across brokerage, private equity, institutional fund management, and now global leadership, and what it takes to scale a real estate investment platform across multiple cycles and geographies.

Martin is Global Head of Real Estate at M&G, responsible for the strategic direction and growth of a real estate business managing approximately $50bn of assets across 26 countries in Europe, Asia and North America. He has more than 20 years' experience in real estate investment management, including 15 years at M&G, and previously held roles at Close Brothers Investment Bank and Jones Lang LaSalle.

In this conversation, Martin shares how growing up in rural Scotland led him into Land Economy, why his early years at JLL and Close Brothers shaped his understanding of risk and cycles, and how living through the Global Financial Crisis fundamentally influenced his approach to leverage, structuring and downside protection. We discuss why he joined M&G when the platform was still UK focused and internally funded, and how proprietary capital was used to seed strategies that later scaled into global third party businesses.

Martin explains the evolution of M&G's residential and living platforms, the creation of its Capital Solutions business for large institutional investors, and the strategic thinking behind acquiring value add specialist Beaumont. We also explore investor behaviour across regions, the return of capital to core real estate, how global LP preferences are shifting, and what leadership looks like when you move from doing deals to setting strategy at scale.

Key Topics Covered in This Episode

✅ From Rural Scotland to Global Real Estate Leadership

How Martin's early career choices and formative experiences shaped his long term investment philosophy.

✅ Lessons from the GFC

Why understanding cycles, leverage and macro risk remains critical for institutional real estate investors.

✅ Building a Global Platform at M&G

How internal life assurance capital helped seed strategies that later scaled into multi billion pound global funds.

✅ Living, Capital Solutions and Value Add

Why residential and living assets became institutionalised and how bespoke mandates and co investment changed M&G's growth trajectory.

✅ Acquiring Beaumont

The rationale behind adding value add capability and how to integrate specialist teams without destroying culture or performance.

And of course, I asked Martin the big question:

Who are the People, what Property, and which Place would you invest in if you had £500 million to deploy?

If you have thoughts or questions about this episode, drop them in the comments. I'd love to hear your take.

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