Family and community underpins Southbank businessman

Finding a home and community in Southbank was a case of third-time lucky for Mosa Gherjestani.

After some considered deliberation, the former banker, now broker, moved from Sydney with his wife and two sons just over a year ago to set up a new life in Melbourne.

While he has called Australia home for almost three decades, Mr Gherjestani originally migrated from Afghanistan as a refugee in 1997.

Landing in Western Sydney, he went to school, worked hard at TAFE, did paper deliveries, even shifts at Pizza Hut and then graduated from university, all the while building community connections and supporting organisations to help families integrate in Australia.

Community has meant many things in many places for Mr Gherjestani, and it’s through this sense of civic duty he continues to forge his life and work.

With more than 18 years of experience in mortgage and finance, serving in senior roles at Westpac and Commonwealth Bank across mortgage lending, retail, and premier banking, Mr Gherjestani now runs Premier Finance Brokers, a finance firm “helping families and business owners to realise their dreams.”

“I always wanted to do something on my own, but I never had the courage to do it,” he said. “You have a comfortable job, you have a fortnightly salary and a prominent title, why would you move? It took me a while to answer these questions, but when I did, I knew it was time.”

“I help customers buy property, restructure and refinance personal or business loans, as well as car or equipment finance.”

“It helps as a banker to become a broker because you know both sides of the system. From a customer perspective, my clients are very loyal to me because they have had brokers in the past and they compare them to how I do things.”

According to Mr Gherjestani, the benefit of using a broker over an accountant or working directly with a bank is that you can access more than 70 different loans.

“If you’re getting information from a bank, you will only get it from their perspective, they will never say by the way, try another bank as well,” Mr Gherjestani said.

“Accountants play a big role in many people’s lives, but not many of them are acutely aware of how the banking and lending world works.”

If you compare a broker to a bank lender, the broker should know a lot more than the lender because the lender only deals with one bank and one policy, whereas brokers work with 70 to 80.

Away from work, Mr Gherjestani’s effort in the community is ever-present. He sits on the committee of his building’s owners’ corporation committee; he is a member of the South Melbourne Primary School council and is currently applying for a $2000 City of Melbourne grant to help build the connection between residents in neighbouring towers.

“We prefer to live in the city rather than the suburbs, we love the Melbourne city, and we love Southbank,” he said.

“We wanted to live in a place where we could raise a family and still enjoy the community, education, healthcare, and vibrancy of the city.” •