If you ever dreamt of owning a property in Hawaii, then you may be in luck: AustralianSuper, Australia’s largest superannuation fund, has just bought a 25 per cent stake in a shopping centre in the Pacific island state.

With an overall value of US$5.5 billion, AustralianSuper’s $1.1 billion stake is the biggest single property transaction undertaken by the $84 billion mega fund.

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And that’s not the only superlative. The Ala Moana Centre in Honolulu is the world’s biggest open air shopping centre, with 2.2 million square feet (195,000 square metres) of retail space.

The size of this acquisition reflects where Australia’s retirement fund industry is heading. Over the last 20 years since the introduction of compulsory superannuation, the retirement savings of Australians has ballooned from a few billion to a staggering $1.8 trillion – the third biggest pool of retirement funds in the world.

Where 20 years ago super funds would mainly invest in Australian businesses, properties and infrastructure, now the mega funds like AustralianSuper, HESTA, REST and QSuper must increasingly look overseas to find investment opportunities that are big enough.

These mega funds are particularly fond of retail property and infrastructure, as they are big, stable, income producing investments. AustralianSuper, for example, owns a shopping mall in Milton Keynes and a 9 per cent stake in Manchester Airport, both in the United Kingdom.

The fund also own a big stake in New South Wales Ports, and has also been tipped as a possible investor in the state’s electricity network, assuming Mike Baird wins the election and the sale goes ahead.

Mark Delaney, the man in charge of AustralianSuper’s investment strategy, said of the Honolulu acquisition: “This deal demonstrates how the size and scale of AustralianSuper allows Australians to be a part of global investment opportunities to which they might not otherwise have access.”