An engineer who came to Australia as an international student says it is unfair to blame people like him for the housing crisis.
Joel Coelho came to Australia from India ten years ago at the age of 17 to study engineering at the University of Wollongong, south of Sydney.
The 28-year-old mechanical maintenance engineer, originally from Mumbai, said Australia’s rental vacancy rate is more complex than just international student debt.
“The housing crisis is affecting far more than just international students,” he told Daily Mail Australia.
‘International students, I know from my own experience, are victims of the circumstances in which they find themselves.
“They don’t have as many opportunities and options as other people.”
International students are allowed to work a maximum of 24 hours per week, which means that many of them have temporary jobs without the security of a higher hourly rate.
“I won’t lie, it was quite tough financially coming here as an international student,” he said.
An engineer who came to Australia as an international student says it’s unfair to blame people like him for the housing crisis
Mr Coelho said his parents had saved $50,000 so he could move to Australia in 2014, the week he turned 18.
To survive, he worked four jobs, including delivering for Uber Eats and working in a restaurant.
“I once had four part-time jobs to make ends meet and lived pretty frugally,” he says.
‘I’ve had several odd jobs. When you enter the country, you have to show that you have enough money to support yourself.’
Mr Coelho’s comments on international students and housing come after Education Minister Jason Clare announced a plan to cap the number of international student visas per year to 270,000 by 2025.
The national vacancy rate of rental properties is still very low at 1.3 percent.
Why I came to regional Australia to live and work
Mr. Coelho has worked at BlueScope Steel in Wollongong since graduating in 2018. He is now a mechanical engineer, responsible for overseeing blast furnaces that smelt metallurgical coal and iron ore at 2,000 degrees Celsius to make steel.
For him, Australia offered a better life than India and he hopes to have children and start a family in Wollongong.
“It was definitely the lifestyle, the work-life balance,” he said.
Joel Coelho came to Australia from India ten years ago at the age of 17 to study engineering at the University of Wollongong, south of Sydney.
‘Now that I’ve lived in Australia for the past 10 years, I can finally see where the decisions I’ve made have led to.’
Mr Coelho is in Australia on a five-year 419 visa, which allows him to live and work in a regional area, and he hopes to eventually become a permanent resident.
The young man is an example of skilled migrants helping Wollongong maintain its steel production capacity. The old BHP plant in Newcastle closed in 1999.
“I’m quite proud that I work in a steel mill,” he said.
“It’s locally made and it’s one of the few that you can find in Australia. I’m absolutely proud that it’s locally made.”
Wealth lesson
He now has $175,000 in stocks, through investments in exchange-traded funds (better known as ETFs) that are linked to the stock market indexes of Australia, the United States, Japan, India and China. He prefers these funds to stocks.
His journey began with $1,000 worth of shares in Western Australian mining services company MACA, now owned by Thiess Group, which he tops up every few months.
“You’re just buying the whole basket of eggs, so that if for whatever reason one of the companies in my basket gets into trouble or goes bankrupt, it doesn’t affect my portfolio because I have other stocks in my ETF that cover those costs,” he said.
The 28-year-old mechanical engineer, originally from Mumbai, said Australia’s rental sector vacancy rate is more complex than just blaming international students.
The investor took a course in 2020 with Paridhi Jain’s SkilledSmart group on the basics of investing and the importance of encouraging superannuation.
‘It definitely gives you insight or a brief idea of what investing is and how it can be beneficial.’
Mr. Coelho hopes to expand his portfolio so that he can retire as an engineer at age 45 and become a financial advisor.
“I think, based on my current investment, my number right now is 45. I always try to get it back if I can, but if things change, that number is flexible,” he said.
“When I say retire early, I mean do things you love and help other people with their finances. I would like to retire early and then start my own business as a financial advisor or work as a financial advisor helping other people with their finances.
‘I wouldn’t necessarily do it for the money.
“If I am financially independent, I don’t have to worry about my salary.”
The tenant also wants to save $180,000 within the next two years so that he has enough money to take out a 20 percent mortgage and buy an apartment in Wollongong.
“I don’t have a concrete plan yet, but I would like to buy a house in Wollongong and live there so I have a home, a place I can call home,” he said.