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IOS · Land share

A yard with a small building on it is a land deal wearing a lease.

Industrial outdoor storage prices on location, access and acreage. The improvements are fencing, paving, lighting and sometimes a modest structure. Which makes the land almost the entire asset.

When improvements are 10% of value, land capital reaches almost the whole deal.
On a typical industrial building the land might be 20–30% of value. On an IOS yard it is routinely the large majority. A capital source that buys land and leaves the improvements alone is buying most of what an IOS buyer is paying for.
Why it works here

The lender problem and the land problem are the same problem.

IOS has been hard to finance conventionally for exactly the reason it is attractive: lenders underwrite buildings, and there is not much building. Loan proceeds against a yard are thin relative to price, which leaves a large equity requirement on an asset whose value is mostly dirt.

Selling the land addresses the gap at its source. The buyer keeps the yard improvements, the tenancy and the upside, and the equity requirement falls by the land price rather than by a loan the lender was never going to make.

Practical

Coverage is the constraint, as always.

Rent is sized at 25–30% of stabilized NOI and capitalized in the mid 6s, with coverage of 3–4 times at origination. On a yard with a high land share, the binding constraint is usually the proceeds cap against appraised value rather than the coverage test.

Worth saying plainly: institutional ground lease capital is built around multifamily, office and hotel. IOS sits outside it almost entirely, at any size, which is why there is generally no competing bid for the dirt underneath one.

Questions, answered

FAQ.

Do you buy the yard improvements too?

No. Land only. Paving, fencing, lighting and any structure stay with the operator, along with the depreciation.

Is coverage tighter on IOS?

Not necessarily, but the proceeds cap against appraised value tends to bind before the coverage test does, because the land share is so high.

What about zoning risk?

It is the main diligence item. IOS uses are frequently legal non-conforming, and we underwrite the entitlement position carefully.

Deal size?

Land checks of roughly $5 to $40 million. Many IOS yards sit at the smaller end of that, which is fine.

What do you need to quote?

Stabilized NOI, purchase price or total cost, acreage and the zoning position.

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Stabilized NOI, price or total cost, acreage, zoning status. A number back inside a week.

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