NNN and Net Lease Properties
in South Florida
Net lease properties are single-tenant or low-management buildings where the tenant pays some or all of the taxes, insurance, and maintenance: NNN passes through all three, NN leaves capital items with the landlord, and absolute net leaves nothing with the landlord at all. Across our five-county South Florida footprint we currently track 300 active for-sale retail listings, the segment where most net-leased deals surface, with a median asking price of $1,550,384. We broker these deals on both sides.
NNN, NN, and absolute net: what the lease actually says
Triple Net (NNN)
The tenant pays base rent plus the three nets: property taxes, insurance, and maintenance. In most NNN leases the landlord still owns roof and structure exposure, which is exactly the line item to read before believing a "zero landlord responsibility" flyer. NNN is the standard structure for single-tenant retail, QSR, pharmacy, and bank deals.
Double Net (NN)
The tenant covers taxes and insurance, but the landlord keeps meaningful maintenance obligations, typically roof, structure, and sometimes parking. NN deals price at wider cap rates than comparable NNN deals precisely because the owner is underwriting future capital expense. Priced correctly, they can be the better yield; priced off an NNN comp, they are a trap.
Absolute Net
Every obligation sits with the tenant, including roof and structure, for the full term. This is the true bond-like structure, common in long-term corporate ground leases and sale-leasebacks. The trade-off is that value concentrates almost entirely in the tenant credit and the lease term, so the underwriting is closer to credit analysis than building analysis.
Buying net lease in South Florida
The buyer pool here is dominated by 1031 exchangers and passive investors converting equity into income, which means good deals move fast and the public inventory is only part of the picture. We underwrite tenant credit, remaining term, escalations, and the real estate under the lease, then negotiate from that basis rather than the marketing cap rate.
Start with the county pages below for local cap-rate context, pressure-test any deal with our cap rate calculator, and if you are on an exchange clock, read our 1031 replacement property guide.
Selling your net-leased asset
Net-leased assets with corporate credit and term are the most liquid product in commercial real estate, and Florida addresses carry a national bid. The valuation question is lease-driven: structure, escalations, remaining term, and what happens at expiry set your cap rate more than the building does.
We match dispositions against our active buyer mandates before, or instead of, public marketing. For a read on your asset, request a free valuation or book a call.
Net lease markets, county by county
Each county page carries live retail inventory stats, observed asking cap-rate ranges, the tenant types trading, and how 1031 demand behaves in that market.
Palm Beach County is the tightest-priced net-lease market in our footprint outside the Miami urban core. The buyer pool skews heavily toward 1031 exchangers and wealth-preservation capital relocating from the Northeast, many of whom are buying the county they already live in part of the year. Demand concentrates on outparcels along US-1, Federal Highway, Glades Road, and the Okeechobee and Northlake corridors, where traffic counts and household incomes justify the tightest pricing.
Broward offers the broadest net-lease inventory in the region: a dense suburban grid from Hollywood to Coral Springs generates the traffic counts and rooftops that single-tenant retailers underwrite to, and decades of corridor development mean there is simply more product here than in Palm Beach or the Treasure Coast. University Drive, State Road 7, Federal Highway, and Oakland Park Boulevard are the classic net-lease addresses.
Miami-Dade is the trophy end of the South Florida net-lease market. International and institutional capital compete with domestic 1031 buyers for the same corners, and the strongest locations (Biscayne Boulevard, Coral Way, Bird Road, the Homestead growth corridor) price accordingly. Buyers here are frequently paying for the dirt as much as the lease: a single-tenant deal on an infill Miami corner carries redevelopment optionality that a suburban pad never will.
Martin County is a scarcity market by design: a four-story height cap and restrictive growth policy keep new single-tenant development to a trickle, so net-lease trades here are infrequent and closely watched. The inventory that exists concentrates along US-1 through Stuart and Jensen Beach and at the Bridge Road interchange serving Hobe Sound, with tenant demand anchored by an affluent, older, year-round demographic.
St. Lucie is where South Florida net-lease buyers go for yield and new construction. Port St. Lucie's population growth has pulled a wave of single-tenant development to Tradition, St. Lucie West, and the US-1 and Gatlin Boulevard corridors, so this is the one county in our footprint where a buyer can regularly find a brand-new building, a fresh 15-year corporate lease, and a cap rate wider than anything comparable in the tri-county.
Net lease, frequently asked
What is the difference between NNN, NN, and absolute net lease?
In a triple net (NNN) lease the tenant pays taxes, insurance, and maintenance on top of rent, but the landlord usually keeps roof and structure. A double net (NN) lease shifts more of those capital items back to the landlord. An absolute net lease puts every obligation, including roof and structure, on the tenant, so the owner truly just collects rent. The label on the flyer is not binding; the lease document is, and we read it before we quote value.
Why do investors buy net lease properties?
Predictable income without operations. A single tenant on a long lease with built-in escalations behaves like a bond backed by real estate: no toilets, no turnover, and, in a true NNN structure, no expense surprises. That profile fits 1031 exchangers leaving management-intensive assets, retirees converting equity into income, and passive investors who want real estate exposure without running a building.
What drives the cap rate on a South Florida net lease deal?
Four things dominate: tenant credit (corporate versus franchisee), remaining lease term, the lease structure itself (who carries taxes, insurance, and maintenance), and the real estate quality of the corner. South Florida pricing also carries a location premium because exchange buyers nationally want Florida income properties. Ranges we quote on our county pages are observed asking ranges from marketed inventory, not appraisals.
Is a net lease property a good 1031 replacement property?
It is the most common 1031 replacement choice we see, because the 45-day identification clock rewards assets that are simple to underwrite and the passive structure suits exchangers stepping back from management. The risks are concentration (one tenant, one lease) and buying yield without reading the lease. We run exchange-driven searches against both listed and off-market net lease inventory.
Should I sell my NNN property on-market or off-market?
It depends on the lease and the goal. Assets with long corporate term price extremely well in open marketing because exchange buyers compete for them. Shorter-term or story deals often do better matched quietly against our buyer mandates before public exposure sets an anchor. We advise on both paths and often run them in sequence.
Whether you are placing exchange proceeds or testing the market on a net-leased asset you own, start with a conversation. We transact this product every quarter.