# Retail charity bond raises £31.5 million for Hightown Housing Association - Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/10/18/retail-charity-bond-raises-31-5m-hightown-housing-association/ - Published: 2017-10-18T10:09:35+01:00 - Author: Melanie May **A Retail Charity Bond has raised £31.5 million for the Hightown Housing Association and closed early due to high demand.** The [Hightown Housing Association](http://www.hightownha.org.uk/) bond was launched on 10 October and scheduled to close on 24 October, but closed early after strong demand from investors. The bonds will pay a fixed rate of interest of 4% a year and will mature in 2027. Hightown will borrow £31.5m initially when the bonds are issued on 31 October, but a further £6.5m of ‘retained bonds’ will be created which can be sold and the extra money loaned to Hightown at a later date. The funds will be used to support Hightown’s development programme. It expects to build over 1,000 homes in the next two years, 75% of which will be for social, affordable or intermediate rent. ## Advertisement [⌊Posthub advert. You create the campaign. We'll handle the postal journey. Get started at post-hub.co.uk.⌉](https://fundraising.co.uk/ads/posthub-20261007-300x250/) This is the second bond for Hightown issued through [Allia’s Retail Charity Bonds](http://www.retailcharitybonds.co.uk/) platform. Hightown was one of the first users of the platform, and raised £27m through a Retail Charity Bond in 2015. David Bogle, Chief Executive of Hightown, said: > “We embarked on this funding route as it presents an opportunity for ethically- > minded investors to contribute to the delivery of much-needed affordable homes. > Once again, the early closure of the Retail Charity Bond underlines the value > of building the affordable homes that our region so desperately needs.” Phil Caroe, Director of Social Finance at Allia, said: > “This latest successful Retail Charity Bond issue confirms both the market’s confidence > in Hightown and its appetite for investments offering a positive social impact. > With three successful Retail Charity Bond issues this year totalling nearly £90m, > the retail bond market continues to offer an attractive source of unsecured loan > finance for housing associations and other charitable borrowers.” * **[Three-year walk for RNLI raises £68.5k so far](https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/11/16/three-year-walk-rnli-raises-68-5k-far/)**( 16 November 2017) * **[Eight more great products supporting charities this Christmas](https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/12/15/eight-great-products-supporting-charities-christmas/)**( 15 December 2017) * **[Fundraising product round-up for the beginning of January 2018](https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/01/02/fundraising-product-round-up-beginning-january-2018/)**( 2 January 2018) ![Loading](https://fundraising.co.uk/wp-content/plugins/page-views-count/ajax-loader- 2x.gif)