None of my siblings is fixated, as I am, with buy-to-let. “Ooh, we’re risk-averse,” say my brother and sisters, rolling their eyes as I dream of expanding my empire. It’s not risk, I say. It’s entrepreneurial. To further my argument I bring on that most entrepreneurial group, the British Asian community, which has gone into buy-to-let with a passion.

Last week’s Asian Rich List revealed property to be a big source of income with many millionaires. Shaid Luqman, 37, with an estimated worth of £125m, started with a buy-to-let portfolio in Manchester when he was a student, and got so fed up of waiting for mortgage companies to approve loans that he set up his own firm offering short-term bridging loans, Pearl Holdings (now worth more than £100m).

He’s not the only one to see the opportunities. “Buy-to-let is a British Asian thing, for sure,” says Ajay Ahuja, author of www.propertyhotspots.net and the owner of a buy-to-let portfolio of about 130 houses and flats spread across the UK. “I went into it very early. I thought it was a safe thing to get into.”

There are elements of buy-to-let that Ahuja, 33, thinks appeal particularly to the Asian community. “Asians have always been interested in property. A lot of my portfolio investors are British Asians. They focus on the cheap stuff, but there are also a lot of white British investors in the bottom end of the market,” he says.

“Where British Asians have an edge is that we tend to pool our resources. My friend’s dad did this — pooling money together so he could buy property with cash. When he needed funds, he went to the community before going to the bank, borrowing £5,000 here and £5,000 there. So, typically, our ability to raise funds is quicker than if you are operating without such a community.”

A spirit of enterprise is also vital. “Running our own businesses is in our blood,” says Ahuja. “If you understand business, you can understand property. And recently it’s been clear that buying property is a way of making money without so much effort — maybe we understand that quicker than white British investors.”

He certainly operates on his own advice. “If I see a bargain, I will buy a property. Even if all I have seen is a picture of it.

“I bought a flat in Scotland the other day for £3,000. It was on for £4,000 and I put in a cheeky offer. I didn’t even see it. I didn’t need to, for three grand. Where was it? In one of my hot spots, of course!” Buy-to-let just makes business sense, says Bharat Shah, a Ugandan Asian who came over to Britain as part of the Asian exile during the Amin tyranny in the 1970s. “I am a self-made individual. Buy-to-let is attractive to British Asians because we tend to be entrepreneurial. We are always looking for opportunities.

“And I would say that in the past three to five years, with the property boom, buy-to-let has been seen as one of the easiest and safest ways of making a good return on investments.”

Shah bought 11 apartments in the new Paddington Central development, selling seven straight away and keeping four to rent out. “I have other flats right across London. So long as you buy at the right time and in the right location, you will do well. It’s as safe as houses.”

Raj Madhani, a partner at the property advisers Matthews & Goodman, who assists Asian investors with commercial property investment requirements, doesn’t think buy-to-let “is particularly specific to my community. It just appeals to entrepreneurial spirits, particularly investors without a large capital base”.

He says: “In buy-to-let, most investors can lever their borrowings up to a high level. To some, it has seemed an obvious way to make some extra cash. Which is where buying in volume comes into play. Most people have realised if they start investing in one and use the proceeds to buy more, that can lead to substantial gain without huge amounts of equity input. So it’s a relatively cheap investment opportunity.

“You can acquire a terraced house for, say, £20,000 in the middle of Doncaster, with minimal costs to you, and you know that that sum might double in the next 12 months.

“For entrepreneurs who don’t come in with much cash, it’s a great way of starting a business. Asian investors tend to be a bit more impulsive and prompt with their decisions. So they might well gamble on a house in Doncaster for 20 grand. My community is more voracious in its appetite to run with it, rather than procrastinate, looking for high value and high margin.

“That’s not to say there is no level of sophistication — there is a great level of sophistication. The ease with which transactions can take place is an obvious draw and the gamble is minimal.”

Also, the typical British Asian will not be out there on his or her own, says Madhani. “Asian families tend to pool their equity together, so there is not usually a sole individual investing, but a sole individual representing a larger family.

“The family agrees on the concept, chips in a fair share of the equity and a chosen representative will go out there and invest the money. They don’t want to leave the money on deposit, gaining 3% growth. They have an appetite to invest the money sensibly, and the financial clout is there.

“There are many of these successful ‘corporates’ run on this basis, and there are also small family units who save their money and put it into property.”

I hope my “risk-averse” siblings are reading this.

Times recommends

• Second homes: credit crunch casualty or money-spinner?
• How I built my own sliding house
• Top 10 incentives for house buyers