Wates Residential has appointed a new Development Director.

With immediate effect, Baerbel Schuett will join the Wates Residential senior leadership team and will be responsible for leading Wates Residential’s developments across London and the South with a particular focus on ensuring each development meets a high standard of place making, quality and sustainability.

Baerbel is a highly experienced Development Director with over 25 years' experience and joins the business from real estate developer, Londonewcastle where she led multiple complex, mixed-use, residential-led projects at a Board level, including the £450m Whitechapel estate and a £250m mixed use scheme in Hammersmith and Fulham.

Baerbel has also worked for Sweett Group and JLL, delivering award-winning medium to large scale residential, high rise, office and school buildings.


She is a trained architect and practiced in both Germany and South Africa, before moving into senior Development Management positions in the UK for over 20 years.

Wates' current housing development portfolio across the UK includes the regeneration of 12 estates in Havering as part of a £1bn joint venture partnership with Havering Council, the redevelopment of Park East in Bexley in partnership with Orbit, its Cardiff Living partnership with Cardiff Council to create 1,500 new homes and the Daedalus Village scheme in Lee-on-Solent that will see 200 new homes built at pace at the historic former air naval base of the Fleet Air Arm.

In September 2020, Wates Residential also announced its investment in a £600m joint venture with the Harrow Council to initially regenerate three sites across the borough. The partnership is the largest investment and development opportunity in Harrow’s history and will initially see the partners build 1,500 new homes, a new civic centre, shops, offices, and a school, as well as public and green spaces.

Helen Bunch, Executive Managing Director of Wates Residential, said: "We are delighted to welcome Baerbel to the Wates Residential senior leadership team and to our highly successful development team, particularly during such an exciting period of growth for the business as we continue to expand our development activities.

"She brings with her a strong set of development management skills, a talent for delivering ground-breaking planning consents and a strong desire to put placemaking and wellbeing at the forefront of design."