The agency recently received government support
Chapman Tripp has helped to structure and establish the Community Housing Funding Agency (CHFA), for which government support was announced at a speech to the KangaNews-ANZ New Zealand Capital Market Forum.
Community Finance launched the CHFA, which seeks to offer large-scale and low-cost debt financing to community housing providers (CHPs) via a funding agency model, last year.
“The CHFA builds on models used by other bond aggregators locally and internationally,” said James Palmer, Community Finance chief executive, in Chapman Tripp’s news release.
Finance partner Luke Ford added that it was “fantastic to see government support, accelerating the CHFA’s opportunities to grow and attract a broad investor base”.
“This reflects the years of hard work that Community Finance has put into supporting the CHP sector and connecting it with private capital”, he said.
Ford led the Chapman Tripp team advising Community Finance. The team included senior associate Hayden Reyngoud and solicitor Tom Yates. Partner Graeme Olding and senior associate Conor Tinker provided structuring and tax advice.
“Luke, Graeme and the Chapman Tripp team have supported us throughout the growth of our lending to many of New Zealand’s leading charities in the housing space and as more KiwiSaver providers and fund managers have become bondholders, from smaller issuances and onto this next exciting stage,” Palmer said. “We have been grateful for the benefit of Chapman Tripp’s deep bond market knowledge, first class legal expertise and commercial approach as we work to bring the CHFA to market and tackle New Zealand’s estimated $14bn social housing deficit”.
ANZ offered lending and arranging services to the CHFA, while Public Trust served as trustee and security trustee.
Housing and infrastructure minister Chris Bishop said that the Cabinet agreed to establish Crown lending facilities of a maximum of $150m for the CHFA to cover:
The CHFA, which was described as the biggest lender to CHPs in New Zealand, seeks to unlock lower-cost finance at scale and support the delivery of social housing, Bishop said in the government’s news release. With a Crown liquidity facility and credit rating, the CHFA can borrow billions of dollars, lend to more CHPs on a bigger scale, and help broaden the affordable housing portfolios of CHPs.
