Industry Super Australia (ISA) has welcomed Infrastructure Partnerships Australia’s (IPA’s) report into the national social housing system which is expected to a make further contribution around facilitating access to affordable housing system.
In a submission to the Federal Government’s Affordable Housing Working Group earlier this year, ISA argued that there should be more opportunities for superannuation funds to combine their long-term investment goals with addressing the nation’s housing needs.
ISA also said that there was the need for additional investments through a model where Government and the private sector should cooperate to address the issue.
Additionally, affordable housing was crucial in order to provide retirement security for many Australians and it recognised a connection between home ownership and economic security in retirement, particularly for women.
According to IPA’s report, there was a backlog of more than 250,000 Australian households on social housing waiting lists.
ISA stressed that having the right policy in place would connect the growing retirement savings pool to the social housing supply while providing long-term outcomes for investors as industry super funds were in a position to invest in affordable housing at scale while “looking after the long-term interests of beneficiaries”.
