How does a Brazilian come to create a new home for his family in Australia?
Well, for Marcelo, his work as an expert programmer had taken him all over the world, so when it came time to settle somewhere with his young family he considered two similar, but quite different countries.
“We wanted to go a country where we could land and speak English and for it to be great for the kids,” he says.
“We considered Ireland and Australia – of course, Australia won.”
A new home coming
Still, Marcelo was a little hesitant about moving permanently Down Under, even though he would have easily qualified as a highly skilled migrant.
Instead, he says, he opted for a six-month student visa and landed in Perth in 2015.
The idea was to see how things went for six months before deciding whether to stay – well, that was the plan anyway.
“I came on a student visa so after six months, if it’s a great place, then I can apply for a permanent residency visa, but if we’re not comfortable here we would go to back to Brazil,” he says.
“Then we fell in love with Australia on the first day. We were like, ‘This is the place. We don’t need to wait for six months’. My wife and my kids are so happy here.
“We came from Sao Paulo city. My neighbourhood was five million people so it’s really crowded.”
It didn’t take long for Marcelo to find a sponsor for his permanent residency visa as well as solid work within his profession.
But then the family had to decide whether they wanted to settle in Perth or head east.
“We needed to go to where the things happen so we had to decide between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne,” he says.
“I had been to Sydney before so we moved to Sydney in December 2015.
“We got so involved in the community and we got the feeling that we belonged to that place. We were so happy to be in Sydney. The city has another kind of energy, different from Perth.”
Property roots
With his family settled in Sydney, Marcelo started to consider investing in property in his new home country.
He already had three properties in his portfolio in Brazil, but decided he needed to take the next step if Australia was going to be their home.
The problem was, he says, he knew nothing about the market nor the intricacies of buying and selling here – even though he was originally a lawyer.
“Before we moved to Australia, I had savings to buy another property – an apartment in Brazil – but when I got my permanent resident visa, I said, ‘Instead of investing in properties in Brazil, I want to invest here in Australia’,” he says.
“I had no help buying in Brazil. I was buying by my own calculations and analysis of the market. Here, there are so many things that are different than Brazil. I have three properties and I am a lawyer and I know how these things work.
“But here, so many things are different. I have no idea what they’re talking about’.”
A useful connection
Marcelo was struggling to work out what to do when a friend in Perth recommended the Propertyology team to him.
In fact, the friend said their three best performing properties were bought with the assistance of the firm.
Marcelo was soon researching Propertyology online and realised he had found what he was looking for.
“So, I took a look at their website and watched their videos. They cover every single aspect of buying a property. You have no issues. They can explain everything. You can ask them everything,” he says.
“I was like, ‘Wow. These are the people I was looking for!’ It was so amazing, my experience with Propertyology.”
With the assistance of buyer’s agent, Bryan Loughnan, Marcelo was soon on his way to investing in Australia.
With the cost of housing in Sydney being so expensive and at the back end of its growth cycle, it made sense to cast a wide net and consider the investment fundamentals of locations all over Australia. Marcelo ended up buying property in an affordable regional city, which he didn’t know much about in the beginning.
But, he says, he didn’t worry about that because of the significant amount of research that the Propertyology team presented to him.
“Another thing that is amazing with Propertyology is the reports, which are so detailed and there is so much information. Everything is there, but if you have any questions you can go back and ask them,” he says.
The city that Marcello invested in performs the role of a service centre for a region which has a diverse economy, a couple of exciting infrastructure projects, and lots of reasons to feel confident about new employment opportunities. Marcello could appreciate the identified growth drivers.
“For us, I had never put my feet in (that location), but I read my reports and saw the videos and said, ‘This is good. I’m confident that buying a property there is the correct thing to do’.”
An Australian portfolio
In September 2017, Marcelo and his wife became the proud owners of a three-bedroom house. It only cost them $298,000 to purchase and the weekly rent of $320 means there’s no ongoing costs. They certainly couldn’t achieve that in Sydney!
Those attractive numbers made Marcelo realise that he would like to buy more properties in his new homeland, using the services of Propertyology.
In fact, he’s keen to sell everything in Brazil to build an Australian portfolio instead.
“All of the properties there, I’m going to convert into Australian properties,” he says.
“We have decided that we want to be here. We have no plans to move back to Brazil. I want to bring my money here.”
“I was in South America last year with my work, when the aeroplane was taxiing here in Sydney, I had this feeling. I told my wife, ‘It’s amazing. I know I’m a Brazilian but the feeling of home now is in Australia. When I saw Sydney, I said that’s my house, that’s my place now, I want to be here’.”
