WALT — weighted average lease term (elsewhere WALE, weighted average lease expiry) — measures the average remaining years on a property’s or portfolio’s leases, weighted by each lease’s rent. It is leased real estate’s duration statistic: how long the current income is contractually locked.
What WALT tells you
The weighting matters: a portfolio’s WALT counts a tenant paying 40% of the rent at 4x the weight of one paying 10%, so the figure describes where the income — not the unit count — sits on the expiration calendar. A 12-year WALT net-lease portfolio has bond-like income visibility; a 3-year WALT office building is a serial releasing project. Both readings have two sides, and honest analysis holds them together: long WALT means secured income and financeability (lenders and cap-rate pricing reward it — WALT is a primary value driver in net-lease and sale-leaseback markets), and it locks in today’s rents through whatever inflation brings, escalation clauses permitting; short WALT means re-leasing risk and capital costs (downtime, tenant improvements, commissions), and the opportunity to mark rents to a rising market — the “WALT is duration” intuition, complete with duration’s rate-environment logic. The companion disclosure that completes the picture is the lease expiration schedule: WALT is an average, and averages hide cliffs — a 7-year WALT built from one 15-year anchor and a wall of year-2 rollovers carries risk the single number conceals. In diligence on net-lease REITs, DSTs, and single-tenant deals: WALT, the expiration ladder, escalation structure, and tenant credit are one integrated read — how long, from whom, growing how fast.
Related terms
Net Lease · Triple Net Lease (NNN) · Sale-Leaseback · Occupancy Rate · Cap Rate
Educational content only; not investment, tax, or legal advice. Consult qualified professionals regarding your specific circumstances.
