Developers and owners of net lease properties have been used to receiving high prices for their assets — fueled by low debt costs for buyers — over the past decade. With rising interest rates, that has changed. Cap rates have been rising and capital is harder to obtain, be it for new net lease development or acquisition of existing assets. That has narrowed the demand, resulting in a lower sales volume over the past year. The volume of single-tenant net lease investment sales was down about 34 percent in 2023 compared to 2022, according to Northmarq’s fourth-quarter 2023 Market Snapshot for Single-Tenant Retail. The average cap rate, meanwhile, rose from 5.62 percent in 2022 to 6.14 percent in 2023. Development of new single-tenant net lease deals is stymied by access to capital, with many regional banks — the lifeline of small developers — on the sidelines. Shopping Center Business interviewed a number of executives in the net lease sector, and studied research from leading firms for our annual overview of the single-tenant net lease property sector. Dealflow and Trends While deal velocity is down, deals are still happening. Today, deals are much more individualized, and both parties usually have to …
