A GROWING SECTOR

The supply of new infrastructure is largely driven by population growth, as governments continue to seek ways to deliver better services and a higher standard of living to growing cities and regional centres. Further, Australian governments and governments around the world have historically underspent on infrastructure because of the large amount of money involved the fact that budget or political cycles often do not match asset investment cycles and the competing need to spend money in other important policy areas.

This means that governments are now looking to play 'catch-up' and initiate infrastructure projects that in many respects ought to have been committed to earlier. In recent times governments around the world have partnered successfully the private sector in the delivery of key infrastructure.

The demand for infrastructure investment is expected to climb, driven mostly by a retail and institutional investor base seeking investments that provide relatively high, tax-effective distributions with the potential for capital growth.