Meet Tim Raes, Director / Broker, Aussie Expat Home Loans

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Tell us about your business?

Aussie Expat Home Loans was founded on a simple goal – to ensure that Australian Expats achieve the best home loan deals they can.
We are a mortgage brokerage based in Singapore assisting Expat clients to obtain finance for their Australian property purchases.

I founded the business in 2017 when all of the Australian banks left Asia and my clients were struggling to get loans approved back home.

Many were left high and dry with little support and a difficult lending landscape to navigate so I wanted to do something about it and try my best to remove the pain from the process.

I’ve worked hard to not only source good solutions for my clients but to also innovate and bring technology in to try and make the loan application process as easy as possible.

What is your role about?

I am the owner and operator of the brokerage.

My job is all encompassing as it is for any business owner, but I work hard to ensure we scour all of our different lenders to find the best deals possible that fit our clients circumstances.

I am proud of the success we’ve had so far and that we’ve been able to help some clients in very difficult situations, thanks to our lender partners.

What’s the hot topic in your sector right now?

The property market and borrowing is always a hot topic for Aussie’s no matter where we are.

We’ve been very fortunate during COVID that loan volumes have been stable and the market has held up relatively well.

The biggest challenges is that its been a difficult time to borrow for the last few years, and we have not seen any significant relaxing of rules since the Banking Royal Commission.  Anyone who has gone through a loan application process in the last few years knows how much information and boxes you need to tick before obtaining an approval.

The biggest indicator we’ve had though that things might start to finally soften is the government’s recent announcement of relaxation around the previous NCCP regulations.

This will hopefully allow lenders to take a more pragmatic assessment of applicants circumstances when assessing future loan applications.

Why are you a member of AustCham?

Austcham has been a great support to me ever since I arrived in Singapore 5 years ago.

The networking events are critical to anyone who is looking to develop connections in the offshore Australian business environment.

If you could travel anywhere right now where would you go?

I’d settle for practically anywhere at the moment.  But top of the list would be Thailand and also a trip home.

Tell us a bit more about you – any hidden talents you’d like to share

In my previous life I studied music at the Conservatorium in Brisbane and my geeky hobby now is to play with local orchestras in Singapore.

It’s actually been one of the real highlights for me about living in Singapore, as they have many quality community groups and I have been able to perform again at a level I thought I had given up many years ago.

If anyone is interested they can check out some of the performances on my Youtube channel

 

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Find out more about Aussie Expat Home Loans on our website

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