There has been notable amount of capital raise for US net-lease real estate recently – not least by Blue Owl Real Estate Capital, which has secured close to $8bn (€7bn) for its latest fund. Blue Owl has been active in the space since acquiring Oak Street Real Estate in 2021, itself a net-lease specialist founded in 2009.
Meanwhile, JP Morgan Asset Management has raised over $1bn for its debut net-lease fund, having moved into the space following its 2023 acquisition of Trio Investment. CBRE Investment Management has also been making moves into net lease, including its acquisition of Tenet Equity, a specialist platform.
US public pension funds are among investors committing capital to US net-lease strategies. Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System and Los Angeles County Employees Retirement Association are invested in JP Morgan Asset Management’s fund, while Orange County Employees Retirement System committed $75m to the Blue Owl vehicle.
Is this a rare growth area in an otherwise fairly slow real estate asset class? The appeal of net lease is particularly relevant in the current environment. It can provide long-duration income with predictable rent for 10 to 20 years – with the tenant responsible for taxes, insurance and maintenance – a level of inflation protection through rent increases.
According to a CBRE report this summer, US net-lease investment volume rose 13% year on year in the second quarter, reaching $12.8bn and accounting for 10% of total commercial real estate investment. For the year ending Q2 2026, net-lease investment volume increased 14% year on year to $57bn.
Sale and leasebacks by companies looking to sell their own real estate can produce opportunities for net-lease investors, and recent research by JP Morgan Asset Management has estimated the potential size of this opportunity – that is all American companies owning their bricks and mortar – at $13.4trn.
Similarly, CBRE Investment Management has estimated that several trillion dollars of coporate-owned real estate sits on company balance sheets of middle-market companies in North America. “Net lease offers what few sectors can: durable, growing, inflation-protected income with long lease terms and low capital requirements,” said Adam Gallistel, co-CEO and CIO of CBRE Investment Management.
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