My first question to Jazz Doklu was; ‘So how did you and your family get into property investing’, and I then listened to a fascinating explanation going back almost 70 years, as he explained how his grandfather and father had arrived in the UK from India.

“I am based in the Medway area in the south east and was born in the UK but my grandfather came over in 1955 due to the labour shortages here in the post-war era. My father did a myriad of jobs including working at the Ford car plant in Dagenham, Essex, but an opportunity came along from an uncle to move up to Scotland and as my father had an entrepreneurial spark he took a risk and moved us as a family north of the border in between Falkirk and Stirling.

“He initially bought a retail shop in a small parade and over the years he acquired nearly all of them. He was very adaptable in learning the nuances of each individual business and once he knew what was involved, he and my mum would hire a manager to run each one so that they could focus on something else. Eventually we moved back down to Kent, and he sold the businesses on leases, but we still own the freeholds. In England he continued to work full-time but was still acquiring a business with the property, which my mum would run and then staff would be hired, and each business would be leased out to an operator. They were a real mum and dad ‘tag team’.”

I asked Jazz how were the properties acquired and were they financed. – “All were acquired off-market through local networking and being aware of what might become available. Yes they were financed initially but now all of my parents’ properties are debt free and they are retired.  

“A typical purchase would be a corner shop with uppers and very often also with extra space attached such as garages or land so there was future potential to add value. There were all sorts of businesses not just typical corner shops, but they also had a restaurant, function rooms and also a car hire operation.”