Investors prioritize stability & sustainability

A new survey by Intreal involving 71 institutional investors reveals a growing interest in real assets, with a strong focus on stability and sustainability, and a notable surge in demand for infrastructure investments.

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An overwhelming 96% of respondents currently invest or plan to invest in real asset funds in 2026. Almost half (48%) invest in both real estate and infrastructure, while 45% focus solely on real estate, and 3% exclusively on infrastructure. Only 4% avoid real asset funds. Within real estate, residential (57%) and logistics (54%) are the most preferred sectors. Grocery retail (36%) and social/healthcare real estate (19%) also rank high, with the latter surprisingly surpassing office real estate (7%) for the first time.
Investors strongly prefer "Article 8" funds (over 91%), indicating a clear lean towards sustainability. "Core" investments, prioritizing stability, are favoured by 56%, with another 33% opting for "core-plus." This aligns with moderate return expectations, with most anticipating initial annual returns between 3.5% and 4.5%. Geographically, Germany (67%) and Europe (63%) are the main targets, while interest in the US has significantly cooled.
A substantial 52% of respondents plan to increase their infrastructure allocation in 2026, and none intend to decrease it. 
Markus Schmidt, head of Business Development Infrastructure at Intreal, commented: It is evident that the infrastructure asset class is well on its way to gain similar significance. This is particularly true for those investors who combine moderate return expectations with a keen emphasis on safety and who wish to exploit additional diversification options. This group consists most notably of providers of life or annuity insurance, but it also includes a number of family offices and foundations. that typically have long-term investment horizons and a strong safety orientation. What makes infrastructure investments so attractive for this target group are stable cash flows of generally long-term predictability.”
Within infrastructure, renewable energies attract two-thirds of investors, followed by communications infrastructure (59%). Europe (94%), particularly Germany (45%), is the preferred target region for these investments. Intreal sees significant growth potential here, driven by Germany's substantial infrastructure capital expenditure needs and political initiatives. 
Malte Priester, managing director at Intreal, said: “The growing expansion of institutional real asset fund investments to include the infrastructure asset class is part of a plausible evolution after real estate funds became established and in the wake of the segment’s increasing differentiation over the course of the past two decades. This trend is in line with our decisions to systematically broaden our service spectrum in Germany and Luxembourg and to acquire licenses for the infrastructure asset class in both countries.”