While investors are engaged, market challenges persist 35 min read
Allens and Infrastructure Partnerships Australia are pleased to release the 2025 edition of the Australian Infrastructure Investment Monitor, marking its 10th year as the most comprehensive analysis of investor sentiment and market trends in Australian infrastructure.
The report reveals strong confidence, with 85% of respondents highly likely to invest in the next three years and 78% expecting the market will meet their needs—up significantly from previous years. Energy assets remain the leading focus, particularly grid storage and firming, while data centres have emerged as a core investment class alongside renewables. Transport infrastructure is also seeing renewed interest, with growing appetite for airports, roads and tunnels.
Despite this optimism, challenges remain. Access to reliable power and suitable land are key barriers for digital infrastructure, and the shift towards regulated assets signals a changing risk profile. These insights provide a critical temperature check on investor sentiment and highlight areas requiring policy and market attention to maintain Australia’s competitive edge.
Key findings
- 85% of those surveyed are highly likely to invest in Australian infrastructure over the next three years.
- Overall confidence in the likelihood of the market providing sufficient opportunities to meet respondents’ needs has strengthened, with 78% expecting the market will likely meet their needs over the next three years, up 10 percentage points from 2024 and 20 points from 2023.
- Energy assets again dominate investor preferences, with grid storage and firming ranked highest (81%), followed by transmission and distribution (74%) and renewable generation (70%).
- Data centres have entered the top tier of assets, ranking joint third (70%) alongside renewable generation as investors increasingly view them as core infrastructure.
- Investor appetite for transport infrastructure has rebounded, with interest in airports up 25 percentage points, tunnels and bridges up 24 points, roads up 22 points and precincts and intermodal terminals up 21 points.
- Access to reliable and scalable power supply (52%) and access to suitable land (37%) were identified as the biggest challenges to investment in digital infrastructure, including data centres.
- Preference for regulated assets (33%) has overtaken unregulated (26%) for only the second time in the last decade.