Based in London, Hedalen will report to Melanie Collett, managing director, asset management, real assets, at Aviva Investors.

He will be responsible for providing strategic research leadership across the full breadth of Aviva Investors’ £43 billion Real Assets platform ensuring research continues to play a critical role in informing and shaping the firm’s investment decisions and delivery of its commercial strategy.

Hedalen joins Aviva Investors with over 15 years’ experience in UK and European real assets research, most recently spending 12 years at abrdn where he was head of UK and European investment strategy for real estate.

He has also held roles at Investment Property Databank (IPD) and M&G Investments. David is co-chair of the European Association for Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate Vehicles (INREV) asset level index, and a member of the IPF research steering committee.

Daniel McHugh, chief investment officer, real assets, at Aviva Investors, said: 'David’s appointment sends a clear message about our ambition to further the growth our Real Assets business in the UK and Europe, whilst also continuing to provide our clients with the quality of investment thinking they have become accustomed to.

'We are delighted to attract someone of his calibre into a role which will be key in delivering on those objectives.

'David’s expertise in developing research aligned to commercial objectives and client needs will be critical in shaping the real assets research team’s work around key investment trends, our relative-value process, as well as the market and sector-level analysis which helps to drive investment activity across the entirety of our real assets platform.'