stockrowWhat it does
W. P. Carey is an internally managed diversified real estate investment trust, or REIT. It owns commercial properties and leases them to companies, primarily in the United States and Europe. Its portfolio consists mainly of single-tenant industrial, warehouse and retail facilities. The company also owns a small number of operating properties, including self-storage facilities, hotels and student housing.
The company specializes in sale-leaseback transactions: it buys a property from a business and then leases it back to that business for a long period. This lets the seller continue using the property while receiving proceeds from the sale. W. P. Carey also acquires other net-leased properties and works with existing tenants on expansions, renovations and redevelopment.
Under a typical triple-net lease, the tenant pays substantially all property operating and maintenance costs, including real estate taxes, insurance and facility maintenance. W. P. Carey assesses both the tenant’s ability to pay and the underlying property before investing. It also monitors tenants’ finances, lease compliance and property conditions after an acquisition.
W. P. Carey was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in New York, with offices in Dallas, London and Amsterdam. Jason E. Fox is its chief executive officer. The company intends to maintain its REIT status for federal income tax purposes.
How it makes money
W. P. Carey earns most of its revenue from leases on the properties it owns. Tenants generally sign long-term agreements and pay rent throughout the lease term. At December 31, 2025, the portfolio’s weighted-average lease term was 12.0 years.
The vast majority of its leases provide for scheduled rent increases. These increases can be fixed in the contract or linked to inflation indices, such as the Consumer Price Index, and may have caps or other limits. Some retail and hotel leases can also provide additional rent based on a tenant’s gross revenue above a specified level. As of December 31, 2025, 99.7% of leases by contractual minimum annualized base rent provided rent adjustments: 48.4% were tied to CPI and similar indices, 48.2% were fixed and 3.1% fell into other categories.
The company also earns asset management and advisory revenue. It externally manages Net Lease Office Properties under advisory agreements. Its operating properties generate revenue differently from net-leased properties: W. P. Carey owns self-storage facilities, hotels and a student housing property that are not included in its net-leased portfolio metrics.
Acquisitions add properties and lease payments, while sales remove assets from the portfolio. In 2025, total revenues increased compared with 2024, primarily because of net investment activity and rent escalations, partly offset by lower operating-property revenue following self-storage dispositions. W. P. Carey also evaluates adjusted funds from operations, or AFFO, a non-GAAP measure, when assessing its operating performance.
| Product or service | Revenue, FY2025 | Share | Change on the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owned Real Estate | $112.5 million | 92.4% | −23.4% |
| Asset management revenue | $5.0 million | 4.07% | −24.9% |
| Other advisory income and reimbursements | $4.3 million | 3.52% | 1.42% |
Customers and how it sells
W. P. Carey leases commercial properties to businesses across industries. Its properties are primarily single-tenant industrial, warehouse and retail facilities, and the company seeks to diversify across tenants, industries, property types and locations. It assesses prospective tenants’ creditworthiness and monitors their financial condition after signing leases.
At December 31, 2025, the net-leased portfolio had 371 tenants in 25 countries. Approximately 61% of contractual minimum annualized base rent came from properties in the United States and approximately 33% from Europe. The net-leased portfolio’s occupancy rate was approximately 98.0% at that date. W. P. Carey reported occupancy of 98.6% at the end of the third quarter of 2026.
Named tenants include Nord Anglia. During the third quarter of 2026, W. P. Carey completed a 10-year lease extension on a Nord Anglia property alongside an expansion project. The company said almost all of its K-12 education properties were leased to Nord Anglia. It also owned sites leased to Hertz serving the SFO, Newark and Logan airports.
W. P. Carey engages directly with tenants to discuss their needs, monitor lease obligations and work on potential transactions. Its portfolio also provides opportunities for expansions, build-to-suit projects and redevelopments with existing tenants.
| Segment | Revenue, FY2025 | Share | Change on the year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owned Real Estate | $112.5 million | 100.0% | −23.4% |
Suppliers and costs
W. P. Carey’s principal business is owning and managing real estate rather than manufacturing goods. Under its typical triple-net leases, tenants pay substantially all costs of operating and maintaining their properties, including taxes, insurance and facility maintenance. W. P. Carey monitors whether tenants have paid property expenses and maintained insurance, and it often engages third parties to inspect properties.
The company incurs property expenses and general and administrative costs. It also spends on acquisitions, construction projects, property improvements and tenant improvement allowances. In 2025, it completed three construction projects at a cost totaling $68.9 million and committed to fund 11 construction projects totaling $277.3 million. It expected to complete the committed projects in 2026 and 2027.
Financing is another cost of the business. W. P. Carey uses a revolving credit facility for immediate needs and seeks longer-term funding from sources including bonds, bank debt, common stock and property sales. Its weighted-average interest rate on debt was 3.3% during the third quarter of 2026. The company expected interest expense to increase in the fourth quarter and into 2027 as higher rates continued to flow through.
- Revenue$1.7B
- Cost of revenue−$182.7M
- Selling, general and administrative−$140.6M
- Other operating costs−$593.7M
- Operating income$799.4M
Competitive position
W. P. Carey competes for commercial property investments in the United States and internationally. Rivals may accept returns, lease terms, transaction terms or levels of risk that W. P. Carey does not find acceptable. The company also faces competition for tenants and changes in market rental rates. Its identified competition includes private-equity funds, but no individual competing company is named.
W. P. Carey evaluates tenant credit, real estate fundamentals and transaction structure when making investments. It also seeks lease protections such as operating covenants, security deposits, letters of credit or guarantees, though these can be harder to obtain when competition for transactions is strong.
Our reading: Credit underwriting and transaction structuring are useful capabilities, but competitors’ willingness to accept different terms limits their strength as a barrier. The company’s direct tenant relationships and work on expansions, renewals and redevelopment can provide repeat opportunities. Our reading: Those relationships offer a source of differentiation, though they do not prevent tenants from seeking other landlords or properties.
W. P. Carey says sale-leaseback transactions can be complex and that sellers sometimes need proceeds within a defined timeframe. It says it has had the most pricing power in sale-leasebacks of sub-investment-grade industrial properties. Our reading: Specialization in those transactions may support negotiating power, but its strength depends on the alternatives available to each seller.
Growth opportunities
W. P. Carey seeks to grow through acquisitions, sale-leasebacks and projects with existing tenants, as well as rent increases already written into leases. It also selectively sells properties and re-leases space. In 2025, it acquired 31 investments totaling $2.0 billion and disposed of 128 properties for total proceeds, net of selling costs, of $1.5 billion.
The company completed approximately $1.6 billion of investments year to date through the third quarter of 2026, at a weighted average initial cash cap rate of 7.5%. Most investment volume during that period went into warehouse and industrial properties. W. P. Carey expected full-year 2026 investment volume of $1.8 to $2.1 billion, while noting that higher interest rates had made the timing of some fourth-quarter transactions less predictable.
Existing tenant relationships are another source of projects. In the third quarter of 2026, the company had 11 projects underway that it expected to add approximately $325 million to investment volume over the next 12 to 24 months. These included expansions, build-to-suit projects and redevelopments.
Contractual rent increases provide another route to growth. W. P. Carey reported contractual same-store rent growth of 2.6% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2026. It expected growth on that measure to remain in the mid to high 2% range throughout 2027, reflecting its inflation-linked leases and other scheduled increases.
- $1.3BFY2021
- $1.5BFY2022
- $1.7BFY2023
- $1.6BFY2024
- $1.7BFY2025
Structural risks
- Tenant payments and re-leasing: Tenants experiencing financial hardship or bankruptcy may not pay rent. W. P. Carey may also be unable to lease or sell a property when a lease ends, or may have to renew at a lower rent. During 2026, the company worked to reduce its Helvig exposure and entered new leases for some properties.
- Debt and refinancing: Consolidated indebtedness was approximately $8.7 billion at December 31, 2025. Debt can restrict flexibility, and financing or refinancing may not be available on favorable terms. W. P. Carey expects higher interest expense as higher rates flow through.
- Property and international exposure: Changes in property demand, rental rates, operating costs, exchange rates or laws can affect results. Foreign investments also bring potential limits on enforcing contractual rights and repatriating capital or profits.
- Investment competition and transaction timing: Competitors may accept terms or risks W. P. Carey will not. Higher interest rates have also made the timing of some investment transactions less predictable, particularly those tied to broader corporate transactions.
- REIT status and distributions: If W. P. Carey fails to qualify as a REIT and does not obtain relief, it could face income taxes and lose the deduction for distributions to stockholders. Dividend amounts and timing are determined by its board and are not guaranteed.
Bottom line
Our reading
Our reading: W. P. Carey’s business rests on recurring rent from a geographically diversified property portfolio, with contractual increases and acquisitions providing routes to growth (item1, item7). Its exposure is to tenants’ ability to pay, the cost and availability of capital, and its ability to reinvest or re-lease properties on acceptable terms (item1a, call_prepared).