NYC Raises $400M for Affordable Housing Construction through First-Ever Sale of Social Bonds
A total of $1.35 billion of General Obligation Bonds were recently sold by New York City — $950 million of tax-exempt fixed rate bonds, of which the proceeds will fund capital projects; and as part of the city’s ongoing commitment to increase affordable housing inventory, $400 million of taxable fixed rate bonds designated as the city’s first-ever Social Bonds were sold. According to the press release by the New York City Comptroller’s Office, “During the retail order period for the tax-exempt bonds, the City received just under $690 million of orders from retail investors, of which over $490 million was usable. During the institutional order period, the City received approximately $6.0 billion of priority orders, representing just over 13.1x the bonds offered for sale to institutional investors;” and “During the order period for the taxable Social Bonds, the City received indications of interest totaling $1.88 billion, representing 4.7x the bonds offered. Of those orders, more than $380 million from 10 investors were identified as being entered for Social Bond-specific accounts.” A statement by Comptroller Lander indicated that the success of the sale shows that New York City is “able to tap into the growing investor demand for socially sustainable investments.”