Build, Lease, Sell: A Proven Playbook for Infrastructure Returns

The model is simple, repeatable, and highly effective: secure land, build a tower, lease it to mobile carriers, and sell the stabilized asset to institutional buyers. This is the modern playbook behind telecom infrastructure investing, and it’s quietly delivering some of the most reliable risk-adjusted returns in the alternative asset universe.

Across the U.S. and Latin America, telecom operators are racing to deploy 5G, upgrade rural networks, and densify urban grids. However, the capital expenditure required to build and maintain these towers is massive, and increasingly carriers prefer to lease space instead of owning the underlying infrastructure. This shift has opened the door for specialized firms to acquire land rights, construct vertical assets, and sign long-term leases with anchor tenants.

Once the tower is operational, the economics begin to compound. Additional tenants, whether they’re national carriers, regional providers, or public agencies, can be added with minimal incremental cost. This “multi-tenant” model creates a margin structure that outperforms nearly all other real estate classes. Stabilized tower portfolios are then sold to REITs or infrastructure funds at attractive multiples, with cap rates often in the 4–6% range and equity IRRs well above 10%.

Importantly, this approach works across markets. In the U.S., it supports high-frequency data needs in both major metros and underserved rural communities. In Latin America, it’s enabling entire populations to leapfrog fixed broadband and connect wirelessly. Regardless of geography, the strategy is the same: build where data is in demand, lease to the operators who deliver it, and sell to institutions hungry for dependable yield.

The “build-lease-sell” cycle may be invisible to most consumers, but for investors, it’s a clear blueprint for value creation in one of the world’s most vital sectors.