£10m raised in housing association retail charity bond
A housing association’s retail charity bond has raised £10m and closed early due to high demand.
The bond, which is raising finance for Golden Lane Housing, closed on Friday having opened to investors on Monday.
The money will be used to refinance previous bonds and to buy and adapt much housing across the country for people with learning disabilities.
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The Golden Lane Housing Retail Charity Bond offered an interest rate of 3.9% a year for a term of 10 years. Within two days the offer was oversubscribed and orders from investors had to be reduced or turned away.
The bond is the seventh to be issued through the Retail Charity Bonds platform, run by social investor Allia, since it was launched in 2014. This takes the total raised through the platform to date to nearly £160m.
It is the second time Allia has launched a bond for Golden Lane Housing, which was the first charity to raise funds through the platform back in 2014.
Golden Lane Housing was established by the Royal Mencap Society to provide quality homes to people with learning disabilities. It owns and leases 798 homes.
Alastair Graham, director of Golden Lane Housing, said: “The positive reception to our second retail charity bond issue has been hugely important in that it both demonstrates the investor community’s support for our cause and it enables us to continue to address the enormous housing challenges faced by people with a learning disability and their families.”
Phil Caroe, director of impact finance at Allia, said: “The success of this latest Retail Charity Bonds issue is a powerful endorsement from the market for Golden Lane Housing’s charitable business model and reaffirms the strength of demand for investments offering a positive social impact.”