Research Status and Outlook of Infrastructure REITs

Infrastructure REITs have attracted extensive attention from both academia and the financial sector, as their development is regarded as a crucial means of revitalizing existing infrastructure assets, broadening financing channels, and improving capital allocation efficiency in China’s infrastructure sector. However, existing studies mainly focus on specific issues and lack a systematic review from an overall perspective. To address this gap, this paper conducts a comprehensive review and analysis of infrastructure REITs research based on 67 relevant studies. By employing the methods of literature review and comparative analysis, this paper systematically summarizes the current research status and identifies the main research themes in this field. The findings show that the existing literature on infrastructure REITs can be classified into three major areas: financing models, returns and dividend distribution, and risks and risk prevention. Specifically, research on financing models mainly focuses on risk prevention and control, as well as the BOT and PPP models; research on returns and dividend distribution mainly examines asset allocation, influencing factors of returns, and profit distribution; and research on risks and risk prevention mainly addresses macro-level risks, management risks, and market fluctuation risks. Overall, the current literature has formed a relatively clear research framework, but still shows limitations in terms of integrated perspectives, in-depth mechanism analysis, and the exploration of China-specific institutional contexts. Based on the review, this paper further proposes future research directions, including strengthening interdisciplinary and multi-dimensional studies, deepening the understanding of the operational mechanisms and risk transmission paths of infrastructure REITs, and exploring institutional optimization in the context of China’s capital market. The study is expected to provide theoretical support for the sustainable and standardized development of infrastructure REITs in China.