Some of Australia’s largest industry super funds have participated in the latest social bonds issued by the National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) to raise A$462m (€294m) for social housing.

IPE Real Assets understands that Cbus Super was among 43 investors to take up the new 10-year social bonds, which include a fixed-rate note of $362m and NHFIC’s first floating-rate note of $100m.

HESTA, the industry fund for the healthcare sector, confirmed that it was one of the super funds to receive the bonds. Hesta and Cbus Super participated in a previous A$562m social bond issue by NHFIC last year.

Mary Delahunty, HESTA’s head of impact, told IPE Real Assets: “Through this investment, we’ll be supporting the supply of new affordable dwellings, putting more Australians, including women who are lower paid or experiencing disadvantage, into secure housing.

With this latest subscription, HESTA has invested A$21.5m into NHFIC sustainable bonds.

The latest social bonds were oversubscribed twice over and took total capital raised by NHFIC to A$2bn.

NHFIC CEO, Nathan Dal Bon, said the organisation had become an established issuer in the bond market and had expanded its offerings to both investors and the community housing sector through last month’s sustainability bond and now its first floating-rate note.

“Investors have taken up more than A$800m of NHFIC bonds within two weeks, with this strong support seeing institutional and private capital flowing into subsidised housing,” Dal Bon said.

The state-owned NHFIC is the main affordable housing bond aggregator providing low-cost and longer-term loans to community housing providers to support the provision of more social and affordable housing.

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