While international efforts in the field of private finance for affordable housing accelerated in the 1990s, Australian policy has continued to rely heavily on government funding and sporadic innovative programs. This project investigates the potential to adapt the Austrian Housing Construction Convertible Bonds scheme to Australia. The Austrian scheme has been found to be popular among risk averse investors, an efficient scheme for capturing long term savings, and given the modest tax incentive, very cost effective.
Researchers will conduct interviews with policy makers, developers and experts in both Austria and Australia; perform financial modelling of the scheme to Australian conditions; and run a workshop involving key Australian decision makers. This will result in industry appropriate documentation around the terms, conditions and marketing of a bond, and the regulatory and institutional requirements to make a bond work in Australia.
Milligan, V, Yates, J and Pawson, H (2016) 'Submission to the Council for Federal Financial Relations Affordable Housing Working Group', City Futures Research Centre, UNSW
