A Suffolk entrepreneur who also serves as an elite soldier has been awarded with a business accolade.

Nabindra Gurung, who is based at Wattisham Airfield, near Stowmarket, was named Property Entrepreneur of the Year at a national event.

His was one of only 10 awards presented at a ceremony at Birmingham’s International Convention Centre which included a private performance by pop legends the Sugababes.

Nabindra, aged 35, operates a successful rent-to-rent property portfolio which involves paying landlords a guaranteed monthly rent.

Meanwhile he improves the properties, maintains them to a high standard and in return gets to keep the profits he makes from letting them out.

He also makes money from selling properties he has sourced to wealthy investors.

The father-of-two owns two properties of his own - enabling him to reverse his working pattern to become a full-time entrepreneur and part-time soldier for the British Army.

Nabindra transferred from the Queen’s Gurkha Engineers to the Royal Logistic Corps in 2014 and is set to join the world-renowned Parachute Regiment in Colchester on December 1.

Nabindra - who travels abroad a great deal with his job - first entered the property market just two years ago during lockdown and admitted he lacked confidence and was concerned about the language barrier.

“That was when we had the time to sit down at home and I came across Samuel Leeds’ YouTube channel. I watched and watched it and thought, wow, this is probably the next thing I need to do,” he said.

“I almost gave up. Now I’m full time in property and I’m also a motivational speaker."

In 2008 he came to the UK in order to join the ranks of the Gurkhas. He was one of just 260 to make it through a vigorous selection process which involved whittling down candidates from a pool of 20,000 young people who applied.

“It is everyone’s dream. They train for years to be there, and you get one opportunity every year. That’s why I say Gurkha soldiers are the best in the UK because these soldiers are not normal men. They come here by being selected. I had a firepower from that moment,” he said.

He enjoys living in Suffolk because of the special connection the public have with soldiers at the base, he said.

“The people in the town love our presence and we have tremendous respect for them too,” he added.

“My grandfather retired after 24 years, but then a few months later had to get a security job. The reason was he couldn’t survive with the pension he had at that time to cover his living expenses. He had no other option but to go and find another job," he said.

“I wanted to create multiple streams of income so I could have a choice. If I want to leave my job, I can do part time or flexible hours. But if I don’t want to do it, then I can quit and still be living happily.”

He set out to find a way to create "a good life, good family time, freedom time".

"That’s been the driving force for us," he said. “My wife is now completely financially free and was able to leave her job a year ago.”