A large number of institutional investors worldwide plan to increase allocations to real assets, AMP Capital's latest Institutional Investor report has found.
More than 30 per cent of respondents currently held over 10 per cent in real assets, with the majority planning to increase allocations, it found.
Just over 70 per cent said they would be most likely to increase investment in real estate, 56 per cent in infrastructure, 28 per cent in infrastructure debt, 17 per cent in real commodities and 22 per cent in other real assets.
However, European investors showed a lot more interest in real assets than their global counterparts. Almost half of European investors expect to allocate more funds to real assets in 2013, compared with only 18 per cent in Asia and 28 per cent in the Americas.
European investors also showed a propensity for direct, unlisted investments focusing on infrastructure debt, whereas in Asia the focus centred around real estate, infrastructure and infrastructure debt.
Investors indicated they were willing to branch out in the coming year whilst also managing risk.
Almost one third of respondents said they were more likely to expand into new asset classes, including infrastructure, private equity, real estate and renewable energy, following structural changes over the next 12 months.
Almost 30 per cent said they expected to limit risk, while 24 per cent said they expected to increase their roster of managers.
Industry Funds Management released a report yesterday urging government reforms to allow further super fund investment in Australia's infrastructure assets.
It said it had $5 billion planned for infrastructure investment, and estimated that if industry funds increased allocations by 5 per cent it could equate to $15 billion — but policy reforms were necessary.
