About Us
Meet Our Accomplished Managing Director: Jay Hogarty
We are delighted to introduce Jay, a seasoned professional with an impressive 25 years of experience as a charity retailer, company director, and property investor. With an illustrious career in retail management and sourcing both commercial and residential property, Jay has consistently demonstrated strategic leadership and an unwavering commitment to success.
Jay has been on quite the journey to build our company to where it is today...
Our Journey
2002
Jay made the move to Edinburgh and made his first Scottish property purchase in early 2002 - a two-bedroom house in the heart of Leith, making a 73% return on investment. Jay meanwhile was promoted to National Area Manager in the charity sector, all the whilst pursuing his interest in property on evenings and weekends.
2003 - 2007
Jay became a well-known face in Edinburgh's property investment scene, and purchased a total of eight properties during this period alongside working full-time. Jay purchased properties in areas such as Stockbridge, Shandon Colonies, Duddingston Village, Newhaven, Portobello, Leith, Gilmerton, and Trinity, all of which had undergone a refurbishment.
Jay purchased a total of 8 properties, and currently still retains four in Stockbridge, Leith, Trinity, and Gilmerton in his sole name. Alongside this success, Jay was again promoted in 2004 to a National Operations Manager, securing a 35% growth in his first year of the company.
2008
Jay took the plunge to fulfill a life-long goal and left his full-time role to launch his own concession based business. Jay successfully launched 30 Cheeky Monkey concessions nationwide in host stores such as House of Fraser (stationing a total of seven concessions in their stores) and 15 other independent factory shopping outlets, selling gifts and stationery.
1993
Jay's interest in property started at a young age, at just nineteen years old he purchased his first home, a three bed terraced house in Carlisle, and rented this out to students whilst working full-time as a High Street Store Manager, and made a return on investment of 55%.
1999
Jay joined Imperial Cancer Research Fund as an Area Manager covering Edinburgh, Lothians and Lanarkshire.
Property in Shandon Colonies - underwent a major refurbishment and an attic conversion from a three bed to a five bed home.
Jay accepted a role as a Head of Retail & Trading for another charitable organisation, and inherited a chain of 19 charity shops that were not trading to their full potential due to having limited investment, and no clear unique selling proposition.
During his ten years at this organisation, Jay successfully grew said chain of 19 shops to 45 shops, with a recognisable brand and unique selling point. He gained a strong understanding of cities and towns across Scotland, launched boutique charity shops in affluent town profiles and large format discount stores in price sensitive locations.
2010
2012
Having faced the challenges of high letting agent fees, marketing fees, and tenant damage, Jay was at a crossroads and contemplated selling his portfolio. Jay was keen to do more to support his local community whilst also ensuring his family portfolio became financially viable so secure their future.
Luckily, Jay connected with C~urb PSL (formerly Link Housing) and decided to triage his first property on their letting scheme.
Gilmerton Dykes Road was leased to Edinburgh City Council, for a five year fixed rental period. This allowed both guaranteed returns on investment, and a guaranteed home for a homeless family. The trial was an absolute success.
2011
Jay met John, and they've been a dynamic property duo ever since. John invested in his first property in 1997, and still retains it to this day. Similarly to Jay, John kept growing his property portfolio, and by 2024 retains four properties in his sole name, and a further property in his limited company.
Gilmerton Dykes Road - the first property to be leased to C~urb PSL!
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Jay successfully achieved his first title split. Upon purchasing a property in New Belfield, Jay identified the opportunity to maximise his return on investment and acquired planning permission to convert a four-bed flat into two separate two-bed flats. Jay successfully won a title deed dispute, and once titles were split, made a surplus of £32,500.
At this point, Jay had raised a surplus of £192,424 through property development alone, not including his four retained properties.
2016
Property in New Belfield - title split successfully completed.
2016 was a big year for us! Jay received a further promotion and became the Director of Retail & Trading, and mastered the art of managing and mitigating risk when acquiring commercial properties. Jay created a highly successful Shop Acquisition Standards procedure to be followed when obtaining commercial property, which included:
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Identify town profile and source site;
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Source landlord to purchase site/off-market deals;
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Agree Heads of terms with the landlord, ensuring all risks are capped liabilities and cap rent reviews;
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Source appropriate paperwork such as:
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Asbestos survey
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Electrical survey
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Pre-Acquisition building survey
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Structural engineer reports.
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Instructing legal professionals and engage with all stakeholders throughout the process;
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Arrange building surveys, liaise with planners, and arrange a full photographic schedule of condition;
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Design shop fit and source equipment;
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Apply for building warrant and planning consents;
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Ensure compliance checklist for site safety completed;
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Project manage all trades;
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Deliver on time and within budget;
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Negotiate dilapidations on closure sites with the landlord to ensure exit costs are kept to a minimum.
Jay built strong relationships with landlords whilst acquiring sites for the charity, and strategically matched Boutique sites with preferred town types, securing purchases from specific landlords. These relationships were so impactful that some landlords made cash contributions exceeding £40,000 to the charity. Jay also worked with Scottish contractors, supporting their business, and witnessed three sole traders grow into limited companies with 2-3 staff members due to the support and guidance provided.
Thanks to this, Jay managed to grow the charitable organisation from £1million income to £4.5million per annum.
2016
One of the many commercial properties sourced, refurbished and retailed by Jay.
Trustee for the Royal Blind in Scotland
Jay supported the Scottish Braille committee, and steered the strategic review to fortify the division for the future, concurrently overseeing a comprehensive rebranding initiative across the entire charity. Additionally, Jay actively addressed and managed yearly deficit.
2018
2020
Upon growing said charitable organisation a sizeable amount, Jay decided to launch Jay Hogarty Properties LTD, as he had always wanted to do more work to help those most in need. Jay sourced and obtained properties, and experienced his first foray with bridging finance, that he understood would provide outstanding homes for the homeless, and after a full renovation, handed these properties over to Link Housing to provide temporary accommodation to homeless families in Edinburgh.
In 2020, Jay stumbled across Amy Rowlinson, a life coach who helped Jay to navigate his goals in the midst of a pandemic, understand his why, learn about SSAS pensions, and most importantly, focused him towards his mission of housing 100 homeless families.
Amy and Jay still work together to this day, not to mention Jay appeared on her noteworthy "Focus on Why" podcast! You can take a listen here at around 16:55.
One of many properties purchased and renovated in 2020. Kirkliston, Edinburgh.
Podcast Appearances
Milestone: 9 Properties Hit
By the end 2021, Jay officially owned, and retained, 9 properties across Edinburgh, in total generating 9 homes for homeless families.
This return was invested into sourcing and retaining more properties...
2021
The Launch of Ask Charity Retail with Sam Easton
Jay and Sam launched Ask Charity Retail, a consultancy that helped charities to launch retail businesses along with supporting existing charities improve performance.
Age UK Surrey
Establishing a new chain of charity shops for Age UK Surrey - Jay assisted by identifying towns through town profiling and segmentation, secured trades, sights, fitted out the shops, hired employees and managed the shops afterwards, and recruited for head of retail. Jay opened three Vintage Shops, one in Haslemere, Lingfield and Esher.
Age Scotland
Jay assisted this charity with a shop exit. The site was profitable, but the charity wanted to review their options, and Jay suggested a lease assignation. In doing so, Jay successfully located another charity to take over the shop, Home Aid, and managed correspondence between legal, the landlord and the two charities combined.
More houses and podcast appearances...
Jay purchased a further four buy to let properties, and attended Jerry Alexander's Commercial Multiple Occupancy course.
Jay further appeared on Jerry's podcast, which you can listen to here. The pair discuss Jay's 30 year history within the residential and commercial property sector.
2022
Milestone: 15 Properties Hit
Jay and John combined hit the milestone of owning and retaining 15 properties - moving closer towards their goal of housing 100 homeless families.
Milestone: The Family SSAS Established
Jay, in looking for new and innovative ways to catapult his goal to house 100 homeless families, discovered SSAS pensions. By forming a SSAS pension, Jay can follow the four B's:
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Buy
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Bridge
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Borrow
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Bank
Not only is Jay able to invest further, this also allows him to preserve his assets for future generations.
2023
2024
Milestone: 20 Properties Hit
Jay and John combined hit the milestone of owning and retaining 20 properties, working towards their goal of housing 100 homeless families.
This is a whopping growth of 33% in one year of the business!
Commercial Ventures
In early 2023 Jay offered on a commercial property
with the view of completing a title-split and then renting out to commercial vendors. We are now near to completion and hope to have the keys shortly.
We're viewing commercial properties frequently now, as we've identified this as a fabulous tool to generate additional cash flow via our SSAS to invest back into housing others.
Boutique Shops
A few examples of some of the boutique shops styled and opened by Jay.
Haslemere Store Opening
Balerno Refurbishment
Growing the Team
In January 2024 we began working with a property virtual assistant, Ellie, founder of JAM Virtual Support, who took charge of building us a CRM to manage our large property portfolio. Ellie handles the day to day correspondence, manages maintenance requests, creates automations, and keeps us active on social media. She's been a great help!
2024
Picture during an inventory check with Ellie at one of our properties in Stockbridge, Edinburgh
We still have a long way to go to reaching our goal of housing 100 families. This year, our goal is to raise more funds, collaborate with others, and house more families. Want to join us? Get in touch below.