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Investments in infrastructure and the strength of real estate markets share a synergistic, mutually beneficial relationship. Infrastructure investment throughout the country was sparked when The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) was signed into law in Nov. 2021 by President Biden – after the House and Senate cleared the measure with bipartisan support in a rare show of congressional consensus.
The IIJA is a historic, $1.2 trillion bill that allocates $550 billion in new spending to improve the nation’s “physical” infrastructure (transportation, water, sewer, electric grid, and broadband systems). Ninety percent of funding authorized by the IIJA will be implemented by governors and mayors. The investments in local infrastructure made by possible by the law will help make our communities safe, productive, and supportive of healthy real estate markets.
The Roundtable strongly backed the IIJA as it moved through the legislative process – and is tracking how the implementation of IIJA funding to various programs run by federal agencies impacts commercial real estate.
Infrastructure investments and CRE markets have a significant influence on each other. Commercial tenants and their employees depend on safe and efficient roads, bridges, and mass transit to commute. Buildings depend on reliable supplies of water, power, and broadband to function. In turn, infrastructure depends on healthy real estate markets. Property taxes are the main revenue source for local investments in roads, schools, etc. Higher property values mean more tax revenues to help pay for more infrastructure.
The IIJA helps the U.S. increase GDP, create jobs, and stay globally competitive with a rising China. The U.S. ranks 13th in the world when it comes to the quality of our infrastructure.
Among the law’s many benefits, it makes the largest single investment in the nation’s electric grid in our history. $65 billion will fund new transmission lines that facilitate widespread adoption of solar, wind, etc., so that clean energy can be transported over long distances. Additionally, the IIJA mass transit investments total over $39 billion to help modernize bus, commuter rail, and subway networks. Most of the transit money will go directly to support local agencies. Yet the largest category of IIJA expenditures is $110 billion to modernize roads and bridges — the single largest dedicated bridge investment since the construction of the interstate highway system.
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