ESG Today has learned that Australian investment firm Avestix will be launching its second fund next week, the Avestix Impact Property Fund. We spoke with CEO and founder Susan Lindeque.

The new fund aims to provide investors with exposure to opportunities that meets their ESG and sustainability investment needs, while earning competitive returns and mitigating risk through diversification strategies.

The new fund will be a pooled mortgage fund designed to encourage systematic change in property development while helping meet continued market demand and the increasing need for positive social and environmental outcomes. It will extend loans for the purposes of impact investing related to property acquisition, refinancing, development, construction, rejuvenation and environmental projects, among others. With the new fund, Avestix intends to maximise meaningful impact across environmental and social outcomes, including financial and non-financial returns.

Investor risk will be mitigated through diversification, as each will share in a proportional amount of the risk and profit from all the fund’s loans, rather than any one particular loan. Avestix stated that opportunities for investment include affordable, social, and NDIS housing, and developments with sustainable energy features.

In a posting introducing the fund, Ms. Lindeque said:

“Avestix Group aims to be at the forefront of impact investing through financing projects spanning a wide range of property-related industries, including residential, disability, community development, renewable energy, and more. Projects will need to meet a full assessment criterion to proceed, including a comprehensive ESG framework (Environmental, Social, and Governance). The Fund intends to generate measurable social impact alongside a good financial return and will collect, aggregate, report on both financial and non-financial returns, communicate outcomes achieved.”

The initial offering amount for the Avestix Impact Property Fund is $100 million, and the fund aims to return 5-8% per annum.

Click here to view the fund overview.