During FY25, QIC Real Estate made a further commitment to our sustainability goals by successfully converting A$3.75 billion of bank loans into Sustainability-Linked Loans (SLLs) for our two largest real estate funds — the QIC Property Fund (QPF) and the QIC Town Centre Fund (QTCF). Combined, these deals formed one of the largest real estate investment trust (REIT) SLLs to come to market within Australia in recent years, with a broad range of targets across the core retail assets in the two funds.

The SLLs have key performance indicators linked to their interest rate margins and have been developed under QIC Real Estate’s Sustainable Finance Framework, which outlines the parameters for the issue and management of sustainable finance instruments across the funds within the Real Estate portfolio. ANZ, CBA and MUFG acted as joint sustainability coordinators on the transaction, and a Second Party Opinion was procured from DNV, confirming the loans were issued in alignment with the Sustainability Linked Loan Principles 2023 and confirming the ambition of the chosen sustainability performance targets.

The SLLs have been structured with targets designed to drive continuous improvement across a range of environmental and social considerations that are material to the funds. The targets seek to address the funds’ carbon emissions (across Scopes 1, 2 and 3) and represent one of the first deals to use the Green Building Council of Australia’s new Green Star Performance Tool v2 (released in July 2024). In addition, the SLLs target Cleaning Accountability Framework certification across both funds’ portfolios to promote industry-leading ethical labour practices.

QIC Town Centre Fund (QTCF) issued a A$300 million Climate Bond Initiative (CBI) certified Green Bond in 2019, a world-first for the retail property sector and an important milestone for our ESG journey. This matured and was re-paid on 15 August 2025²⁴ having outperformed its associated sustainability targets. The Green Bond had a tenure of six years and required a minimum 30.8% carbon emissions intensity reduction compared to the baseline year. In FY25, the operational performance of the assets within the Green Bond represented a reduction of approximately 65% in carbon emissions intensity against the baseline year²⁵.

Our strong sustainability credentials and forward-looking objectives supported engagement with strategic capital during FY25, culminating in an approved equity investment into QACPF²⁶ from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) in September 2025²⁷.   

QACPF’s portfolio of convenience retail assets represent a market segment of existing building stock that has traditionally lagged in sustainability ambition and performance. We see an opportunity to reposition the portfolio through realising the benefits of innovative energy, circularity and decarbonisation strategies, taking advantage of the smaller scale of assets within this portfolio to drive change that is often harder to achieve in larger real estate holdings. Working closely with the CEFC, our focus will be on innovation, technology deployment and market engagement, allowing us to stay ahead of industry sustainability-related developments and expectations to create a portfolio of future-proofed, highly sought-after assets, all while enhancing their ability to access capital and deliver investment returns.  

Read CEFC’s media release here.