Generate KiwiSaver scheme invests $14 million through Community Finance to support Kiwi housing

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Generate KiwiSaver Scheme, Community Finance and Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust (ŌCHT) collaborate to build new homes in Christchurch.


Just in time for Christmas, the Generate KiwiSaver Scheme has partnered with Community Finance to make a $14 million impact investment to finance 35 new homes for people in need.


The homes are part of a new community development that will revitalise Willard St in the Christchurch suburb of Spreydon.


Cate Kearney, Chief Executive of ŌCHT, said: “The partnership with Generate KiwiSaver and Community Finance will have a positive impact in the lives of 35 whānau and provide a secure foundation for these families to live and build a future.


“This impact investment provides a significant boost to our ability to plan and build new community housing in Ōtautahi. It provides the certainty we need to further unlock the potential for new homes now and into the future.”


The Community Finance investment structure enables the opportunity for positive financial returns for Generate KiwiSaver members over the long-term, while providing a positive social impact to benefit Aotearoa.


Ayrton Oliver, Generate Portfolio Manager, said: “Ethical investing is one of our core values at Generate, so we often seek out investment opportunities that have the potential to drive both positive financial returns and positive social impact - we don’t believe these need to be mutually exclusive.”


Community Finance facilitates and manages lending by issuing Community Bonds which provide an innovative way to tackle the housing crisis where wholesale investors support the financing of homes that are owned and managed by leading charitable Community Housing Providers, such as ŌCHT.


Despite recent falls in house prices, the increased cost of living and short supply of affordable houses in New Zealand has exacerbated the lack of capacity in the rental market and increasingly unaffordable rentals.


James Palmer, Chief Executive of Community Finance, said New Zealand’s significant housing and cost of living crisis impacts the country’s vulnerable population most.


“We are focussed on encouraging investors to choose investments that also have a positive social impact in our country. Key to this is collaboration and commitment from KiwiSaver providers, fund managers, and foundations to work with Community Finance to back leading Community Housing Providers like ŌCHT, to continue the incredible work they do while also delivering positive returns for investors.”


The construction of the new development in Ōtautahi has already begun and the homes are on track to be completed in 2023.


The new homes will be built to the New Zealand Green Building Council’s Homestar 6 standard. The homes will be constructed with low maintenance, durable materials and be well-insulated and thermally efficient.


Cate Kearney said the new-look Willard Street meets ŌCHT’s goal of sustainably providing warm, dry, and healthy homes that set new standards for community housing.


“We want to provide houses that people come to see as homes, in a community they’ll build in a great place to live. Generate’s purposeful, ethical investment in our work will help us ease the pressures of housing scarcity and homelessness and give our communities new opportunities to grow.”


Ayrton Oliver said: “I think there’s no denying that 2022 has been a pretty rough year for many Kiwis, so it’s really nice to finish up the year by wrapping up a deal that will create positive change in our community, while still delivering attractive returns for our members.”


Impact investing is nothing new to Generate. In 2020 Generate was the first KiwiSaver scheme to invest in social housing via a $21 million investment managed by Community Finance into Salvation Army Community Bonds. That investment supported118 warm, dry, affordable community houses across three locations.


Since its launch in 2020, Community Finance has already advanced over $100 million and the latest impact investment will see it surpass $120 million of lending.



ABOUT ŌTAUTAHI COMMUNITY HOUSING TRUST
The Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust is one of the largest residential landlords in the country with a portfolio of 2,450 homes of which it owns over 570 properties and leases a further 1880 properties. It was formed in 2016 out of Christchurch City Council’s wish for a financially sustainable model for its social housing portfolio.


ABOUT GENERATE
Generate is an award-winning KiwiSaver provider with over $3.5 billion funds under management, and a track record of strong, long-term performance through responsible investment. Generate was recently awarded both Investor Choice and Adviser Choice Awards at the Research IP Funds Manager of the year awards and received a Consumer NZ People’s Choice Award for KiwiSaver earlier this year.


ABOUT COMMUNITY FINANCE
Community Finance is a leading impact investment intermediary in Aotearoa/New Zealand. It provides the connection between wholesale investors with leading positive impact investments. Its impact investments are primarily focused on financing leading Community Housing Providers (CHPs) that provide homes around the country with long term Government funding.

Generate commits NZD55 million to private equity

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Generate commits NZD55 million to private equity


The Generate KiwiSaver Scheme has committed to a USD25 million investment with CIM Group, a Los Angeles-based real estate and infrastructure owner, operator, lender and developer, to invest in mid-market North American infrastructure, in sectors including renewable energy, data centres, waste to renewable energy and social infrastructure, alongside a USD7.5 million investment into Novva Data Centers - a U.S.-based data centre company with ambitious growth plans.


Generate Chief Investment Officer, Sam Goldwater, said “One of the key attractions of CIM Group is that the firm focuses on sectors that have clear structural tailwinds. For example, investments in solar and waste to renewable natural gas businesses have the potential to materially benefit from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the US as it provides meaningful tax incentives for renewable energy projects; and investments in data centres are looking to benefit from the digitilisation trend and the huge investment into A.I. occurring in the U.S.”


Generate’s members have had a great experience from investments into renewable energy and data centres to date, enjoying strong returns from the likes of Tilt Renewables and seeing meaningful uplifts in the valuations of Infratil’s investments in (renewable energy company) Long Road Energy and Canberra Data Centres. These investments have contributed to Generate’s market leading returns over the last 10 years*. We believe Generate’s investments with CIM will positively contribute to our members’ returns over the next 10 years.’


This is Generate’s third significant investment into alternative assets in the last 12 months. Late last year the KiwiSaver and wealth provider committed to invest $20 million in the New Zealand based Movac Growth 6 Fund; a later-stage VC fund invested in Kiwi tech companies; and earlier this year Generate committed $20 million into Icehouse Ventures’ Growth Fund II - a VC fund that will support around 20 established New Zealand technology companies win on the global stage. 



About CIM Group:

CIM is a community-focused real estate and infrastructure owner, operator, lender and developer. Since 1994, CIM has sought to create value in projects and positively impact the lives of people in communities across the Americas by delivering more than $60 billion of essential real estate and infrastructure projects. CIM strives to make a meaningful difference in the world by executing key environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives and enhancing each community in which it invests. For more information, visit http://www.cimgroup.com.


Generate Adviser takes on 30 marathons in 30 days to raise money for Movember.

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Generate Adviser takes on 30 marathons in 30 days to raise money for Movember.


This November, we’re supporting Generate adviser, Rob Wearing, as he takes on a (self-appointed!) challenge to run 30 marathons in 30 days in the hopes of fundraising $30,000 for charity, Movember.


Movember is an annual event where men are encouraged to grow moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness for men's health issues, such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and men's suicide.


More recently, challenges like Robs have been the driving force for Movember fundraising across New Zealand.


We’re super proud of Rob and truly impressed by the challenge (30 marathons!), and so Generate have committed to donate $333 for every marathon Rob completes up to a total of $10,000!


When we asked Rob about his motivation, he said “This is a cause that is very close to my heart and I can’t wait to get started. Last year I ran 1,000kms over the month, completing various challenges along the way and ended up raising over $10,000. So really trying to push the boat out this year.”


Rob’s goal is to raise $30,000 for Movember. If you’d like to support him, check out his official Movember fundraising page here and keep up to date with his progress on his Instagram page @hittheroadrobbie.


We’ll also be updating our social media with all Rob’s key milestones so make sure you follow us on Instagram and Facebook.



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