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UK Property portfolios - Why Desis are doing so well

SpiritOf1903

SpiritOf1903

ODI Debutant
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Most of the UK hotel chains and property portfolios are Asian owned.

I knew of Arora Group, Surinder who monopolised airport accommodation and his children the budget shopping market, namely B&M, which has had exponential growth in small time.

I always assumed Radisson was the American Dream but Edwardian Hotels are Indian too, with a young heir in charge. Founded by
Jasminder Singh. They have the grandest buildings in imposing places. Have some gorgeous ones in the heart of London's elite and while expensive, it makes me happy that the desis got my money :)

Punjabis roll the dice best.
 
Work ethic needed to run these places and our guys do work hard running these places
 
In terms of properties to rent, you can see the appeal. Desis just want to sit on their backsides earning the rent money.
 
I did a road trip of around 7500 miles last summer. We spent lot of time in various hotels around US. Almost all of them were owned and run by Indians. From California, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, NY/NJ, Illinois, Michigan, Washington, Oregon to center of nowhere in Utah. It was really crazy that could choose randomly any hotel and end up seeing the Indians running them. I daresay there are more indians in the hospitality industry than IT/Software industry here. Out of 45 days we stayed in various hotels only three were not owned by Indians. We never made any effort to stay at any particular hotel. Just keep driving until you want to take a break. Boom you have an Indian run hotel.
 
desis have long history of land ownership, they may not understand stocks, shares, other investments, but they have a hereditary understanding of real estate.
 
ElRaja said:
desis have long history of land ownership, they may not understand stocks, shares, other investments, but they have a hereditary understanding of real estate.
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Pretty easy to understand for many desis ,one thing they know is prices go up mostly not down so work , buy & rent . A lot of 3rd generation kids don’t have a mortgage which is a huge advantage esp as interest rates will have no choice to sky rocker inline with inflation. Another opportunity will present itself in the next few years when house prices crash , people sell as they can’t afford the mortgages .

Only problem for some is they work more hours than in a day , don’t spend anything & hardly enjoy their life in pursuit of property & wealth
 
KingKhanWC said:
Pretty easy to understand for many desis ,one thing they know is prices go up mostly not down so work , buy & rent . A lot of 3rd generation kids don’t have a mortgage which is a huge advantage esp as interest rates will have no choice to sky rocker inline with inflation. Another opportunity will present itself in the next few years when house prices crash , people sell as they can’t afford the mortgages .

Only problem for some is they work more hours than in a day , don’t spend anything & hardly enjoy their life in pursuit of property & wealth
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i think the older generation are guilty of the latter, seen so many people working themselves into the ground. more times i think it comes from a sense of responsibility to their families and their self identification as being breadwinners.

i know a guy who is proper salt of the earth uncle type, dude has worked all his life, if u have any problems with plumbing or gas he'll come around in his old micra and help u out, get his hands dirty, but owns 4 properties in London "for his kids".

these guys worked so hard in their younger years i don't think they know any other way.
 
ElRaja said:
i think the older generation are guilty of the latter, seen so many people working themselves into the ground. more times i think it comes from a sense of responsibility to their families and their self identification as being breadwinners.

i know a guy who is proper salt of the earth uncle type, dude has worked all his life, if u have any problems with plumbing or gas he'll come around in his old micra and help u out, get his hands dirty, but owns 4 properties in London "for his kids".

these guys worked so hard in their younger years i don't think they know any other way.
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Yeah i think the bolded is exactly it.

I read a book called the triple package which detailed the three traits that model immigrant communties have. Sort of similar to what you have said there.

An extract from an article about the book.

The authors contend that these traits—*insecurity, a superiority complex, and impulse control—*generate drive, grit, and disproportionate success.

“It might seem odd to think of someone feeling simultaneously superior and insecure,” says Rubenfeld, the Robert R. Slaughter Professor of Law at Yale Law School. “But it’s precisely the unlikely combination of these traits that generates drive: a need to prove oneself that makes people systematically sacrifice present gratification in pursuit of future attainment.”

I think the old uncle type that you have mentioned exemplify the triple package characteristics

Insecurity - in front of the "indigenous population"

Superiority - i.e being man of the house, i'm capable of working my backside off compared to these whiteys/youngsters type mentality.

Delayed gratification - quite obvious in how they operate.
 
DeadlyVenom said:
Yeah i think the bolded is exactly it.

I read a book called the triple package which detailed the three traits that model immigrant communties have. Sort of similar to what you have said there.

An extract from an article about the book.

The authors contend that these traits—*insecurity, a superiority complex, and impulse control—*generate drive, grit, and disproportionate success.

“It might seem odd to think of someone feeling simultaneously superior and insecure,” says Rubenfeld, the Robert R. Slaughter Professor of Law at Yale Law School. “But it’s precisely the unlikely combination of these traits that generates drive: a need to prove oneself that makes people systematically sacrifice present gratification in pursuit of future attainment.”

I think the old uncle type that you have mentioned exemplify the triple package characteristics

Insecurity - in front of the "indigenous population"

Superiority - i.e being man of the house, i'm capable of working my backside off compared to these whiteys/youngsters type mentality.

Delayed gratification - quite obvious in how they operate.
Click to expand...

Love the three characteristics there, uncanny.

For some reason there's a jealousy toward sound investment; bricks and mortar was always the way. Indigenous didn't know how to be frugal as, without stereotyping, generally were hedonistic.

Nowadays, there's been a shift where especially Pakistanis have become embarrassed to own anything and indigenous youth now own properties and the newer generation immigrant offspring don't.

Although the Indians have definitely inherited and retain incredibly robust entrepreneurial ethics.
 
Mrs Robert and I visited a rather nice hotel just inside the M25 run by desis. Very good service.
 
SpiritOf1903 said:
Love the three characteristics there, uncanny.

For some reason there's a jealousy toward sound investment; bricks and mortar was always the way. Indigenous didn't know how to be frugal as, without stereotyping, generally were hedonistic.

Nowadays, there's been a shift where especially Pakistanis have become embarrassed to own anything and indigenous youth now own properties and the newer generation immigrant offspring don't.

Although the Indians have definitely inherited and retain incredibly robust entrepreneurial ethics.
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I don't think its embarrassed to own properties, necessarily just that for a long time our entrepreneurial elders preached the virtue of getting a standard job and the corporate lifestyle, rather than slogging away and building your own business.

Definitely agree that Indian maintained the entrepreneur lifestyle more than Pakistanis.
 
DeadlyVenom said:
Those figures are probably inflated due to a high percentage of cabbies and delivery drivers.
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Agreed but even without them I’d guess the figures for Pakistanis would be higher. Indians are much more education oriented while Pakistanis are most business oriented imo.
 
Soon sellers will be listing well below floor price as each tries to undercut the other for getting equity out.

Tell your friends and family to start listing with haste.
 
How Indian Americans Came to Run Half of All U.S. Motels

Starting in the 1940s, Indian immigrants built a hospitality industry that their children and grandchildren have turned into an empire.

..

The success of Patel and his family mirrors the rise of Indian Americans in the U.S. motel industry. About half the country’s motels are now owned by Indian Americans. A majority of these owners are from Gujarat state’s industrious Patel community, leading them to be jokingly referred to as the Patel Motel Cartel. Growing up in motels run by their immigrant parents, many second- and third-generation Gujaratis in the United States imbibed an entrepreneurial spirit and ethic of hard work, which they are applying to modernizing the businesses they inherited and launching new businesses of their own.

..

“They would give each other handshake loans—no collateral, no payment schedule, just pay when you can,” Doshi explains. Once a family purchased a motel, they would live there, and the family members would do all the tasks needed to run it, from cleaning rooms to checking in guests. That helped keep costs down, and profits went toward acquiring new motels. By the 1980s Gujaratis had come to dominate the industry.


https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/south-asia-america-motels-immigration

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Indian American are less than 1% of population in USA. Tiny population, but controlling more than 50% of market.
 
Key part -

--------------

They would give each other handshake loans—no collateral, no payment schedule, just pay when you can,” Doshi explains. Once a family purchased a motel, they would live there, and the family members would do all the tasks needed to run it, from cleaning rooms to checking in guests. That helped keep costs down, and profits went toward acquiring new motels. By the 1980s Gujaratis had come to dominate the industry.

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I had explored hotel industry as investment earlier and very familiar with sector here. I don't know much about UK, but it won't surprise me to see something similar.

If family is living there and doing all the tasks themselves then it's very hard for some one else doing differently to compete with them. Eventually you sell out your business to low cost operator and low cost operator takes over entire country. That's what Happened here. Eventually low cost operators with future generations started taking a portion of luxury chains as well. Less advantage in higher end because families are not living and doing the work.
 
Never stand still. Keep moving forward

Words I standby whether it's the property business or anything else.
 
Buffet said:
Key part -

--------------

They would give each other handshake loans—no collateral, no payment schedule, just pay when you can,” Doshi explains. Once a family purchased a motel, they would live there, and the family members would do all the tasks needed to run it, from cleaning rooms to checking in guests. That helped keep costs down, and profits went toward acquiring new motels. By the 1980s Gujaratis had come to dominate the industry.

---------------

I had explored hotel industry as investment earlier and very familiar with sector here. I don't know much about UK, but it won't surprise me to see something similar.

If family is living there and doing all the tasks themselves then it's very hard for some one else doing differently to compete with them. Eventually you sell out your business to low cost operator and low cost operator takes over entire country. That's what Happened here. Eventually low cost operators with future generations started taking a portion of luxury chains as well. Less advantage in higher end because families are not living and doing the work.
Click to expand...

The other reason people this article doesnt mention - Immigration fraud is rampant amongst the Patel community. 1 immigrant guy will not only sponsor the visas of their extended family (whole villages from Gujarat have migrated in this chain migration) but also lots of expired student visas, illegal border crossing, etc. These illegals then have no option but to opt for low paying jobs with relatives they know & thats how the business owning Patels get richer. This i know because we had a Indian Patel cook in our house & the stories she would tell would horrify us regarding how these guys game the system.
 
TSA321 said:
Agreed but even without them I’d guess the figures for Pakistanis would be higher. Indians are much more education oriented while Pakistanis are most business oriented imo.
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amongst indians gujratis and sikhs tend to favour businesses from my experience, its less common in other ethnic groups.
 
There is a large hotel in the Leith region of Edinburgh that I stayed at for a week on a holiday once, this is run by a family from the subcontinent. It’s absolutely brilliant and the customer service is second to none.
 
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