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 a decade ago, aged 17, to study engineering at the University of Wollongong, south of Sydney.
The 28-year-old mechanical maintenance engineer from Mumbai said Australia’s rental vacancy crisis was more complex than blaming international students.
“The housing crisis affects much more than just international students, personally,” she told Daily Mail Australia.
‘International students, in my personal experience, often lose out simply because of the circumstances they find themselves in.
“They don’t really have as many opportunities or as many options as other people.”
International students are only allowed to work up to 24 hours per week, meaning many of them take on odd jobs without the job security that higher hourly rates offer.
“I’m not going to lie, it was pretty difficult financially to come here as an international student,” she said.
An engineer who came to Australia as an international student says it is unfair to blame people like him for the housing crisis.
Coelho said his parents saved $50,000 for him to move to Australia in 2014, the week he turned 18.
He then worked four jobs to survive, including delivering for Uber Eats and working at a restaurant.
“There was a time when I was working four part-time jobs to make ends meet and living pretty frugally,” he said.
“I had several odd jobs. When you arrive in the country, you have to prove that you have sufficient funds to support yourself.”
Coelho’s comments on international students and housing come after Education Minister Jason Clare announced a plan to cap the annual number of international student visas at 270,000 by 2025.
The national rental vacancy rate in the country remains very tight, at 1.3 percent.
Why did I come to live and work in regional Australia?
Mr. Coelho has worked in BlueScope Steel in Wollongong since graduating in 2018. He is now a mechanical engineer in charge of overseeing the blast furnaces that smelt metallurgical coal and iron ore at 2,000 degrees Celsius to make steel.
For him, Australia offers a better life than India and he hopes to have children and start a family in Wollongong.
“It was definitely the lifestyle, having the work-life balance,” he said.
Joel Coelho came to Australia from India a decade ago, aged 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 really see the decision I made and where it took me.”
Mr Coelho is in Australia on a five-year Skilled Work Visa 419 that allows him to live and work in a regional area, and he hopes to eventually obtain permanent residency.
The young man is an example of skilled migrants helping Wollongong maintain its steel production capacity after the former BHP plant in Newcastle was decommissioned in 1999.
“I’m proud to say I work in a steel manufacturing plant,” he said.
“It’s made locally and is one of the few products that exists in Australia. Local manufacturing is definitely something I’m proud of.”
Lesson of wealth
He currently owns $175,000 worth of stocks, investing in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) linked to stock market indices in Australia, the United States, Japan, India and China, preferring them to stocks.
His journey began with $1,000 worth of shares in Western Australian mining services group MACA, now owned by Thiess Group, and top-ups every few months.
“You just buy the whole basket of eggs, so if for whatever reason any of those companies in my basket were to suffer or go bankrupt, it wouldn’t affect my portfolio as such because I have other stocks in my ETF that would cover that cost,” he said.
The 28-year-old mechanical engineer from Mumbai said Australia’s rental vacancy crisis was more complex than blaming international students.
The investor took a course with Paridhi Jain’s SkilledSmart group in 2020 on the basics of investing and the importance of boosting retirement.
“It definitely gives you an understanding 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 from engineering when he is 45 and become a financial advisor.
“I think, based on my current investment, my number right now is 45; I’m always working to get it back if possible, but if things change, that number is flexible,” he said.
‘When I say retire early, I think in the context of doing things that I enjoy doing and it’s to help other people with their finances, so I would love to retire early and then start my own business as a financial consultant or work in financial advice to help other people with their finances.
‘I wouldn’t necessarily do it for the money.
“If I’m financially independent, then I don’t have to worry about a paycheck.”
The tenant also plans to save $180,000 over the next two years to have enough for a 20 per cent mortgage deposit to buy an apartment in Wollongong.
“I don’t have a concrete plan yet, but I would love to buy a place in Wollongong and live there to have a home, a place to call home,” he said.