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One broker is about to launch an Indian mortgage group to capitalise on the large numbers of Indians moving to growth areas in Sydney’s west.
Kris Menon will lead a seven-person group within Origin Finance that will include four more brokers and two loan processors, all of Indian heritage.
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Mr Menon, who moved to Australia in 1992, has been a broker since 2007, and derives 92 per cent of his business from Australian-based Indians, he told The Adviser.
He will be mentoring the four other brokers, who are due to start next month. They have just finished their Certificate IVs through Walker & Miller, a company affiliated with Origin.
The new group will target areas with large Indian populations such as Liverpool, Blacktown, Seven Hills and Strathfield, Mr Menon said.
They want to pick up new clients by attending and sponsoring Indian cultural events, he added.
“Apart from doing festivals, we also do information seminars where people who are new to Australia get to know about government grant conditions and how much deposit they need. We do a bit of advertising in Indian shops as well as real estate offices,” he said.
According to the most recent census, India is the number four source of new migrants to Australia, after the UK, New Zealand and China.
Mr Menon said Indian migrants typically buy a new house after three or four years and then a second house four years later, with some also buying a third house within their first decade.
Between them, the five brokers speak seven different Indian languages, with Punjabi being the only main language not covered, he said.
Mr Menon told The Adviser that he would like to add a Punjabi speaker to his group.
“There is a huge growth happening in Glenwood and The Ponds area, and most of the Indians there come from a particular part of the Punjab,” he said.
Mr Menon also said he wanted to find a Bengali speaker to service the Bangladeshis who live in the “huge growth belt” around Macquarie Fields and Ingleburn.
