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2023-12-22 2:05 pm
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Impact Finance

Impact loans for affordable, accessible and green homes

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number of homes built for people with a disability

We lend to community housing providers to help them build affordable and social housing for people who need it, and specialist disability accommodation providers that build homes suited to people with complex care needs.

Highlights

We’ve been lending to the community housing sector for over 15 years, lending over $400m since 2006

We were one of the first banks in Australia to lend for specialist disability accommodation

We believe everyone is entitled to live in an affordable home that meets their needs, and Bank Australia has a strong track record of supporting affordable and accessible housing. We’re also active in developing green homes through our impact lending business.

Highlights

We’ve been lending to the community housing sector for over 15 years, lending over $450m since 2006

We were one of the first banks in Australia to provide loans for specialist disability accommodation (SDA). Since 2018 we've lent more than $125m into this sector.

We were one of the founding members of the SDA Alliance, an industry peak body that provides a unified voice to better support development of a diverse and sustainable SDA market.

What is impact lending?

Our impact lending business is a critical part of our commitment to responsible banking. It’s part of how we meet our customers’ expectations that their money is invested in ways that create positive social and environmental impact.

Our impact lending team provides loans to values-aligned organisations to purchase and build affordable housing, green homes, and specialist disability accommodation (SDA). The team also supports individual SDA home loans by working closely with our retail banking team.

Community and affordable housing

Increasing access to affordable, secure and accessible homes is a top priority for us and an important issue for our customers. In our 2023 customer values survey, over 80% of our customers said they cared about access to affordable and accessible housing, which is why we’re taking action to support expanding the supply of affordable and accessible homes in Australia.

We were one of the first banks to provide loans for community housing, and we now have nearly 2 decades of experience working with the sector. Between 2006 and 2023 we loaned over $450 million to fund community housing, contributing to secure homes for people at risk of homelessness and people on low to middle incomes.

We are also exploring alternative housing models that address the availability of affordable housing across the housing spectrum. This includes cooperatives and key worker accommodation for people working inessential services, such as healthcare and education. Key worker accommodation gives people employed in essential industries access to affordable rental homes close to where they work, reducing the burden of high market rents and long commutes.

Specialist disability accommodation

We are committed to reducing barriers to home ownership and increasing access to appropriate homes for people with disability. We were one of the first banks to provide loans into the SDA and a founding member of the SDA Alliance.

We provide loans to support values-aligned organisations that build, develop and invest in SDA. Between 2018 and 2023, we loaned more than $125 million in impact loans to the SDA sector, helping to increase supply of homes that meet the needs of people with disability.

We also offer SDA home loans for individual customers through our retail lending. We are one of few banks in Australia that considers SDA funding through the National Disability and Insurance Scheme (NDIS) as income to service a mortgage. This is part of how we’re addressing inequities in the housing market.

Green homes

Reducing emissions from the homes we finance is key to reaching our 2035 net zero emissions target and impact lending is part of how we’ll achieve this goal.

Since 2020 we've offered Clean Energy Home Loan products to individual customers who buy, build or renovate green homes.

Our impact lending business provides construction loans for property development companies that build, manage and renovate homes with high sustainability credentials.

We are proud to partner with organisations that are values-aligned and want to see a more sustainable future for housing. Low-carbon homes can also deliver many other benefits, including community connections and healthy lifestyles.

Impact story

Providing housing choice for Australians who have a disability

Bank Australia was the first bank in the country to lend to customers for specialist disability accommodation (SDA), and to date has funded loans for housing projects in Victoria, New South Wales, the Northern Territory and Queensland.

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Our vision for impact lending

Everyone deserves to live in a home that helps them live the life they want to lead, and banks have an important role to play to reduce inequities in the housing market.

By providing loans to established, values-aligned organisations that work to increase access to affordable, accessible and green homes, we’re taking action to create a world we and our customers want to see.

Read the case studies below to find out more about our impact lending business.

Customer stories

Working with community housing to end homelessness
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Sustainable home design: Milieu's Park Street project
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'Owning my home has changed my life': Marlena's story
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View more stories
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Contact the impact lending team

If your organisation needs debt to scale its impact, get in touch with our impact lending team.

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Learn more about the impact of finance

Clean energy transition
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Not-for-profit and for purpose sector
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Helping people make sustainable choices
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Bank Australia investments
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