The National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) released its Social Bond Report for 2020–21. NHFIC’s Social Bond Report provides insights into bond issuances, including borrower profiles and use of proceeds.

Highlights include:

• Issuing 3 bonds – including NHFIC’s first sustainability bond and longest-tenor bond, and first floating rate note – raising a total of $805 million.
• Supporting more than 4,900 dwellings, with around two-thirds (65 per cent) of the CHP loans funded by the three bonds underpinning new housing supply.
• Provided 9 community housing providers with an estimated $161 million in fee and interest savings, through longer tenor and lower-interest loans.
• Continued to attract private investment into social and affordable housing in Australia, by growing NHFIC’s investor base domestically and offshore, with 7 new offshore investors.
• Meeting the housing needs of a range of cohorts including vulnerable women, indigenous households, and people with disabilities.

Commenting on the report, NHFIC Chair Adrian Harrington said: “We’re pleased with the performance of the Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator in helping the community housing sector access lower-cost and longer-tenor funds. Issuing six bonds totalling nearly $2 billion is a significant achievement for an organisation that is just three years old.

“Our third Social Bond Report shares the inspiring work of our community housing partners and provides tangible evidence of the critical role institutional investment can play in supporting social and affordable housing. The strong support we have received from the institutional investors bodes well for social and affordable housing becoming a more established investment asset class in Australia.”

The report also includes profiles of the community housing providers supported by the bonds issued during the financial year. The 2020–21 profiles in the report include: Building Communities (Vic), Common Equity Housing Limited, Foundation, Housing Choices SA, Housing Choices Tasmania, Mission Australia, Pacific Link, SGCH Group and Unison.

View the Social Bond Report 2020-21