Three distinct but increasingly connected themes are helping to strengthen the case for listed real assets in 2026: HALO, PACE and LAPS.
Taken together, they help frame why infrastructure and listed property may be entering a more supportive phase, not simply as defensive diversifiers, but as increasingly relevant allocations for income-focused portfolios.
For wealth managers and financial advisers, these themes provide a useful framework for thinking about where durable income, valuation support and structural demand may intersect.
A new market rotation: real assets are moving back into favour (HALO)
One of the clearest market developments this year has been the rotation to physical asset-backed businesses. This has been described as the HALO trade: Heavy Assets, Limited Obsolescence.
After a prolonged period where capital has concentrated heavily in technology, software and long-duration growth assets, investors are increasingly reassessing the resilience of those earnings streams. In that environment, businesses backed by tangible assets and contractual cashflows are regaining attention.
The HALO thesis rests on three key characteristics:
- Physical necessity: infrastructure assets provide services society cannot function without
- Long-term contractual revenues: often supported by regulated frameworks or government-backed agreements
- Limited obsolescence risk: essential infrastructure is far less vulnerable to technological disruption or AI displacement than many other sectors
Infrastructure is not just insulated from technological change. In many cases, it also enables it. For example, digitalisation requires fibre networks, data centres, energy supply and grid investment.
For investors, this combination creates an increasingly compelling proposition: long-duration assets, visible cashflows and lower disruption risk, often at a time when broader equity market valuations remain concentrated in fewer sectors.
For strategies such as GCP Infrastructure Investments, TM Gravis UK Infrastructure Income, TM Gravis Clean Energy Income and TM Gravis Digital Infrastructure Income the HALO framework reinforces an investment case built on predictable income streams and physical asset backing.
UK property: compounding income matters as much as asset value (PACE)
If HALO explains why physical assets are regaining favour, PACE adds another layer to the property investment case.
PACE stands for Physical Assets, Compounding Earners, and it shifts the focus from simply owning assets to owning property businesses capable of growing income over time.
This is an important distinction. In listed property, returns have historically been associated with asset valuation movements. But Gravis’s Matthew Norris argues the more durable source of long-term returns increasingly comes from operational execution: active management of assets to improve rents, occupancy and dividend growth.
This is particularly relevant in sectors such as:
- Healthcare property
- Self-storage
- Logistics
- Urban mixed-use assets
These are often mission-critical assets where tenants depend on the property to operate, giving landlords stronger pricing power and greater income resilience.
The PACE philosophy centres on a simple but powerful principle: Always Be Compounding. That compounding is visible in the dividend records of several UK listed property companies held within the TM Gravis UK Listed Property strategy, including businesses that have delivered more than a decade of consecutive dividend growth.
For advisers, this changes the conversation around property allocations. Rather than viewing UK listed property solely through the lens of cyclical valuation recovery, PACE positions it as a source of steadily compounding contractual income, with the potential for inflation protection and long-term dividend progression.
In a market still heavily concentrated in AI-related equities, this offers a differentiated return driver: physical assets generating recurring income rather than relying purely on future earnings expectations.
A major structural catalyst: the emerging LAPS trade
The third theme is LAPS: Listed Assets for Pension Schemes.
The Government’s Mansion House reforms, alongside the recently enacted Pension Schemes Act, are expected to direct substantial pension capital towards infrastructure, property and other long-duration productive assets over the coming years.
In fact, the Government estimates the reforms could unlock £50bn for investment into private assets, with £25bn expected to be directed towards the UK economy by 2030.
While much of the attention has so far focused on private market investing, under the new legislation, pension schemes can now meet these allocation requirements through listed investment vehicles, including investment companies and funds investing in them, provided qualifying criteria are met. These include GCP Infrastructure Investments Limited, TM Gravis UK Infrastructure Income and TM Gravis UK Listed Property.
What’s significant is that much of the listed infrastructure and property market currently trades on substantial discounts to NAV, despite owning long-duration, inflation-linked and operationally essential assets.
For pension capital, this presents an interesting opportunity:
- Immediate access to productive assets
- Daily liquidity
- Governance and transparency
- No cash drag versus some private market structures
- Potential access to assets at discounts to underlying value
For wealth managers and advisers, LAPS could become an important catalyst beyond pensions themselves.
If pension flows begin to return to UK productive assets at scale, improved liquidity, narrowing discounts and broader institutional participation could create a meaningful rerating environment across listed infrastructure and property.
Creating a coherent investment narrative
HALO, PACE and LAPS are separate ideas, but together they create a coherent investment narrative.
- HALO strengthens the case for essential, lower-obsolescence infrastructure assets
- PACE reframes listed property as an income-compounding allocation, not just a valuation trade
- LAPS introduces a structural demand catalyst that could help close persistent valuation discounts
At a time when many client portfolios remain heavily exposed to concentrated global equity leadership, UK listed real assets offer a different set of characteristics:
- Contracted and often inflation-linked cashflows
- Lower correlation to traditional equities
- Tangible asset backing
- Potential valuation upside from discount narrowing
- Long-term structural relevance
After a prolonged period of under-ownership, the backdrop for UK real assets may be changing.
And if 2026 marks the beginning of a broader reallocation back towards productive capital, HALO, PACE and LAPS may prove useful frameworks for understanding where that opportunity sits.
No information contained in this article should be construed as providing financial, investment or other professional advice and should not be considered as a recommendation, invitation, or inducement to subscribe for, dispose of or purchase any such securities. Professional investors only. Capital at risk. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.