Property Insiders - Expat Financing with David Petrevski

Performance Property Data

“Once you add all these allowances to the base wage, that’s what really gives the expats buying power. And that’s why it’s such a great opportunity for them at the minute.”

David McMillan welcomes his namesake, old school friend and football teammate, David Petrevski onto the show. The two Davids have been teaming up recently bringing sound advice and strategy to Australian expats, and here they chat about this often overlooked and neglected area of the financial service industry.

Acknowledging that we are currently in a very difficult time for financing, David P. states that he is interested in expats because he has a genuine interest in helping people out and often likes to get into things when they are challenging. He is also happy to spend more time overseas.

With all the Australian banks closing down a lot of their face-to-face operations overseas, there are many opportunities for financiers, and the two Davids discuss their partnership in this space.

Few people are currently choosing to work in expat funding due to its difficulty, although David P. says that it was always so. They discuss the practice of income “shading”, whereby banks drastically reduce an expat’s loan-servicing income because of currency conversion. However, high wages and other allowances mean that expats still often have a lot to invest with.

One significant change is how banks have become more risk-averse in relation to loan-to-value ratio (LVR) with lending. This simply means that expats need to have access to more cash in order to qualify for lending.

David P. argues that expats considering investing back home should not be discouraged by the apparent obstacles. With enough of a cash deposit, and the right advisor in their corner, financing is still available and affordable.

About David’s guest, David Petrevski

With over 17 years of experience in the financial services industry, David possesses not only industry knowledge and experience, but also a desire to help people achieve their long term personal and financial goals.

As founding partner of Australian Finance Advocates, David’s role is to help build relationships within the financial services industry that add value to their team of mortgage consultants and in turn provide a flow on effect of benefits to their customers.

About the host, David McMillan

During his 16 years in the property industry David has worked as a property valuer and property adviser to private clients, financial planners, accountants, finance brokers, major banks and governments. He has been involved in more than $500M worth of transactions across Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia & Queensland.

Since 2009, David has been specifically focused on helping medical professionals, expats, business owners and busy executives build effective property portfolios.

David is a fully licensed real estate agent in Victoria, South Australia and Queensland (CEA), Certified Practicing property Valuer (CPV), Qualified Property Investment Advisor (QPIA) and most importantly is an active property investor. David joined the Australian Property Institute in 2001 and is now an Associate (AAPI) and in 2009 became a member of the Real Estate Institute. David currently sits on the board of Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA) to promote ethics in the property investment industry.

‘Property Insiders’ is one of three segments you will hear on the Performance Property Data podcast. Released fortnightly, they are conversations between David McMillan (Director Acquisitions - Performance Property Advisory) and industry leaders offering knowledge and expertise.

‘The Property Pineapple’ is released monthly and is hosted by Sharon Taylor (Research Analyst - Performance Property Advisory). The show presents listeners with stories from real investors, discussing their wins, and admitting their losses.

And ‘Performance Insights’ are released every Wednesday and Friday, giving you technical information and the lowdown on key property markets around Australia. These episodes are also available as short videos at our youtube channel.

For more information about how Performance Property Data can help you maximise your investment dollar, head to www.performancedata.com.au to become a part of the Performance Property Community for access to exclusive content.