Infrastructure has been earmarked by the federal and state governments to do much of the heavy lifting in rebuilding Australia’s economy post Covid-19, with Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s recent economic update continuing to commit a Hundred Billion Dollar Pipeline to this task.

This commitment, when coupled with the need for patient capital to complement government spending, could open the door to finding ways to allow Self Managed Super Funds to play a significant role in providing some of the capital needed for this type of investment.

Currently, Self Managed Super Funds have largely been excluded from these investments due to the high cost of entry. SMSFs account for a total value of over one Trillion dollars and when a different investment model is created for infrastructure, with a lower cost of entry, SMSFs will be better able to give the larger superfunds a run for their money.

From experience we see two types of models that are in demand: Completed projects, or Brownfield assets that are income-generating and the Greenfield sites, which are projects still on the drawing board and provide longer term capital growth, rather than income.

So in short, I encourage the infrastructure developers to break the pattern of tailoring investment opportunities to the large investors. Not saying to quit that all together, but think outside the box and provide additional investment opportunities with a much lower cost of entry so that the trustees of the Self Managed Super Funds are able to put their shoulders under the economic recovery of Australia.