Real estate investment started out as local investors investing in local assets, and it has maintained this local focus as it has matured. Infrastructure, however, has been a global investment class from the get-go. As such, infrastructure investors in one region of the world are part of the same trends and face the same issues as investors in other parts of the world. 

Iceland is noteworthy for many reasons — its beautiful scenery, geysers, the Blue Lagoon, and according to the nonprofit Institute for Economics and Peace, for being the most peaceful country in the world. Given these credentials, maybe it’s not so surprising that, according to the third World Happiness Report by the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Iceland also is the second happiest place in the world.

For investors, sometimes the new kid on the block really is a new kid, or even their grandparents. This certainly seems to be the case with Australian social infrastructure, which is just beginning to make its mark on the institutional investment scene with a flurry of newly minted investment vehicles posting eye-popping numbers.