Verana Living
Operational strategy for living spaces.
We're an independent advisory firm supporting new and existing investors, owners and operators to get the most from every stage of a living space. Every project is different, so we tailor our support to each stakeholder, from the earliest concept and design through to day-to-day operations.
Sowgol Zarinchang
Founder
“The resident's experience and the investor's return are the same question asked twice.”
Sowgol is a recognised leader in the living sector. She founded Verana Living in 2026 after a career managing almost every tenure type: affordable housing, the private rented sector, student accommodation, serviced apartments, build to rent and single family homes.
Driven by customer experience and the value that thoughtful services and strong operations create, Sowgol believes a building that works to live in is one that lets well, retains residents and holds its value.
Having spent her career setting strategy and running buildings rather than drawing them, she knows exactly where design and operations come apart. Small details add up over a building's life, and they cost far less to fix at design stage than once the building is in operation.
Sowgol chaired the Association for Rental Living (ARL) Operational Benchmark Committee and Renters' Rights Act (RRA) Committee, serves as its Special Advisor for ESG, and sits on its Operations Committee. She is a committed advocate for diversity and inclusion, having mentored around thirty women in real estate through Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) UK, and in 2025 was named Industry Shaper of the Year by the ARL, the only woman on the shortlist.
- Individual Industry Shaper Award, Association for Rental Living, 2025
- Most Innovative Tenancy Management MD, SME News, 2024
- Winner of the MD of the Year Awards, SME News, 2024
- Named among 49 women shaping the future of UK real estate, Bisnow, 2019
- Association for Rental Living (ARL), Former Chair of the Operational Benchmark Committee
- Association for Rental Living (ARL), Former Chair of the Renters' Rights Act (RRA) Committee
- Association for Rental Living (ARL), Special Advisor for ESG
- Association for Rental Living (ARL), Operations Committee
- Contributor to a number of government consultations and British Property Federation (BPF) initiatives
- Member of The Property Institute (MTPI)
- Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH)
- Associate of the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (AIWFM)
- CREW UK, mentor
- Active member of Ladies in Real Estate
We treat every living space as a customer-centric business. Returns are made or lost in the details: how a building is set up, staffed and run day-to-day and, above all, what it's like to live in. We believe the best results come when operators work closely with owners and asset managers.
The budget, the team, the turnaround between tenancies, whether the amenity space is worth heating: all of it reaches the bottom line. Most of these costs are set by underwriting assumptions, before anyone knows how the market will perform.
By the time they show, they are too expensive to reverse. So we work alongside your team through the lifecycle of a project to test those assumptions while there is still time to make changes. We take on a few projects at a time, and Sowgol oversees every one personally.
If you have a project in mind or a decision to weigh up, talk to us first. We'll tell you whether we're the right people to help.
Where are you in the lifecycle?
Our services meet you wherever you are in the process, from initial appraisal and compliance due diligence to long-term operation.
We start by translating your brief, then add value at each stage of the project. No two engagements are the same, and we work with every stakeholder in the lifecycle to get the best outcome.
Select a stage to reveal the services that apply.
Most decisions about how a building will run are made before anyone has set foot inside it.
We work alongside your team early on to create an end-to-end operating model, including a staffing plan and service specifications, while the design is still flexible.
That usually means sitting down with your architects, owners and investors to review the initial design specification from the perspective of both residents and operators. Drawing on decades of operating experience and real performance data, we identify the small operational details and pain points that typically only show up once the first resident has moved in.
- Operating model and management structure
- Staffing strategy, roles and service specification
- Guidance for investors new to the living sector or expanding into new countries
We work from the running costs of buildings we have operated, not from benchmarks built on assumptions.
We build the operating budget from your unit count and specification, stress-testing it against how comparable buildings have actually performed. We then walk you through the reasoning behind every figure, so you can apply the same thinking to future projects.
- Full operating budget from unit count and building specification
- Staffing, budget setting and lifecycle cost inputs, based on the specification
- Stress-testing the assumptions behind the business plan
- Presented in a form that underwriting teams can work with
This is the most exposed point in the lifecycle. We run readiness reviews before launch and stay close through the first months of operation.
Acting as an extension of your team, we run the mobilisation programme from handover to opening: recruitment, training, systems and supplier procurement, so the building is ready for residents and not just finished on paper. We train your team as we go, so they can carry the skills forward, and we step back smoothly once you're ready.
- Mobilisation programme from handover through to opening
- Hiring, training and team set-up
- Systems, contracts and supplier procurement
- Leasing and marketing readiness
Our founder, Sowgol Zarinchang, has led operations teams through periods of growth and gaps in leadership. We're here to step in while you build capability in-house.
For the occasions when you only need senior leadership for a handful of months, this service saves you carrying a full-time cost for part-time value. Our involvement is designed to end once it has done its job, and for larger organisations it can mean efficiently plugging into several projects at once.
- Leadership through transitions and business growth
- Operational health checks and risk review
- Ongoing advisory on a retainer
- Support for teams building an in-house capability
- Regular compliance and audit checks, so your portfolio passes its MOT and is ready for asset disposal
The pace of any project is uneven, so resourcing should follow suit.
We scale our involvement to match, so once a building has opened, you may not need us again until the next practical completion or fund deployment.
The same is true of a leadership gap, a market entry, or a budget that needs rebuilding. Teams are rightly built for the steady state of operations, but perhaps not for the spikes and the demand that comes before it. That is where we come in: we take on the spikes as they arise, so your core team can stay focused on day-to-day operations.
£2.5bn+
8,000+
25
3
Twenty-five years operating at leadership and board level.
Four platforms, three of them built from the ground up, across build to rent and student accommodation.
- 2018 to 2026Way of LifeManaging DirectorManaged and grew a Build-to-Rent and Single Family Rental platform of 2,700+ homes with assets valued at over £1.5bn.
- 2017JLL Hotels & HospitalityDirector of Serviced ApartmentsLed the serviced apartments practice, advising owners and investors across the operational living spectrum.
- 2012 to 2017Notting Hill Genesis, Folio LondonDirectorDirected the Folio London market rental business of 2,000+ homes, building the operating platform from the ground up.
- 2002 to 2012Notting Hill GenesisDirector of Student AccommodationJoined Notting Hill in 2002 and rose to lead the student accommodation portfolio, covering operations, lettings and asset performance.
Tell us about your project.
For new opportunities, press or speaking enquiries.
We work across the United Kingdom, Europe and the UAE, advising owners, investors and operators managing existing or new projects, or entering the sector for the first time.