Family
Three generations. Since 1961.
Who we are
Bostall is a privately owned family business, founded in the 1960s and now in its third generation. The firm's interests are held on the family's own balance sheet, without external mandate or fund structure, and built with a horizon measured in decades.
The first generation
The founding.
The firm has its origins in 1961, when the founding generation — having arrived in London from India in the late 1940s — opened the family's first restaurant in the Midlands. The family relocated to London later in the decade, and through the 1960s built a small chain of newsagents across South East London. The income generated by those businesses, accumulated patiently over two decades, would in time fund the first residential acquisitions that defined the next generation of the firm's work.
The second generation
A measured expansion.
The second generation directed the family's commercial capital into London residential property from the 1980s, beginning across South East London — the geography the family already knew well from the newsagent years. From the 1990s, focus shifted to Hackney, where the borough's emerging gentrification offered substantial long-term value. The 2000s and 2010s saw sustained growth across the Hackney portfolio, with the firm's discipline of holding rather than trading, restoring rather than rebuilding, retained throughout. In 2015, the family diversified into purpose-built care, beginning the platform that operates today.
The third generation
Today.
The third generation joined the firm in 2023, returning from a decade in institutional real estate private equity to extend the platform across new asset classes and to bring institutional discipline to the family's operating model. Bostall today operates as a multi-asset family office with real estate at its foundation — residential restoration, care home development and operation, selective hospitality assets, and a global portfolio of public and private market positions. Privately held, vertically integrated, and managed by an in-house team with multi-decade continuity across the buildings and businesses.
How we work
One building at a time.
We do not work to annual targets, deployment quotas, or external growth mandates. We grow as the right opportunities present themselves, building by building, across cycles and across generations.
We do not stretch.
We will not compromise on entry price, margin, or basis. We would rather pass on a transaction than enter one we cannot withstand through a downturn. Discipline precedes opportunity.
Complexity is our work.
The buildings we acquire are often those the market finds too small, too constrained, or too complex to be worth the effort. Period restoration is where over six decades of family experience is most concentrated, and where our advantage is most pronounced.
Family at the table.
Decisions are made collectively across the family, building on the foundations laid by the previous generation, and with continuity in mind for the next. Capital, operations, and asset management are kept within the family and a small in-house team. Work is divided by strength and judgement, not by hierarchy or function.
From the archive
From the family's archive: Hackney terraces in the early 1980s, in the years the firm began acquiring and restoring period London stock.
Operating Model
Vertically integrated.
Bostall is not a passive owner. The group manages the full real estate lifecycle internally — acquisition, design, planning, development, refurbishment, asset management, and long-term operation. This integrated model allows the family to retain control over quality, timing, and long-term performance.