Ground Lease KPIs.

Ground Lease is a infrastructure property type in ILORA's commercial real estate taxonomy. Long-term land lease with tenant building improvements. Annuity-like cash flow. Performance under infrastructure sector conventions is measured against canonical KPIs including Carrier Tenants, Capacity Factor (solar), Tower Cash Flow, Annual Escalator, Utilization, Sell-Through Rate, NOI, Cap Rate. Public REIT comparables for benchmarking include AMT (American Tower), CCI (Crown Castle), SBAC (SBA Communications), HASI (Hannon Armstrong), BEP (Brookfield Renewable). Regulatory frameworks specific to this property type include FCC Antenna Structure Registration, FAA aviation lighting, NEPA, IRS Investment Tax Credit, NEVI federal funding (EV charging), Highway Beautification Act (billboards). Industry organizations driving standards + research include WIA (Wireless Infrastructure Association), SEIA (Solar Energy Industries Association), NREL, OAAA (Outdoor Advertising Association). Operating tools commonly used: Tarantula (tower lease management), Sitetracker, Yardi Commercial, AcreValue. Ilora.ai ingests sector-standard documents and benchmarks against SEC EDGAR REIT filings, surfacing where the asset under-performs comparable institutional positions and revealing the largest improvement opportunity.

12 definitions · Sector: INFRASTRUCTURE · Used by Ilora.ai specialist AI agents

NOI

Net Operating Income

Total revenue minus operating expenses (excludes financing and capital costs). The primary measure of property-level profitability.

NOI = Revenue − Operating Expenses

  • profitability
  • core
Cap Rate

Capitalization Rate

Net Operating Income divided by current property value. Expresses unleveraged annual yield as a percentage.

Cap Rate = NOI ÷ Property Value

  • valuation
  • core
DSCR

Debt Service Coverage Ratio

Net Operating Income divided by total annual debt service. Lender-required cushion measure; below 1.0 means NOI cannot cover debt.

DSCR = NOI ÷ Annual Debt Service

  • lending
  • risk
LTV

Loan-to-Value

Loan amount divided by property value. Lower LTV = lower lender risk.

LTV = Loan Amount ÷ Property Value

  • lending
  • risk
OER

Operating Expense Ratio

Operating expenses divided by gross revenue. Lower is better, but varies by property type (hotels run higher than triple-net retail).

OER = Operating Expenses ÷ Gross Revenue

  • efficiency
GRM

Gross Rent Multiplier

Property value divided by gross annual rental income. Quick valuation shortcut; less precise than cap rate.

GRM = Property Value ÷ Gross Annual Rent

  • valuation
  • shortcut
IRR

Internal Rate of Return

Annualized return on investment accounting for time value of money across the full hold period.
  • return
  • underwriting
CoC

Cash-on-Cash Return

Pre-tax annual cash flow divided by total cash invested. Measures the cash yield, not total return.

CoC = Annual Cash Flow ÷ Total Cash Invested

  • return
DCF

Discounted Cash Flow

Valuation method that projects future cash flows and discounts them to present value at a chosen rate.
  • valuation
  • underwriting
TTM

Trailing Twelve Months

A rolling sum of the most recent 12 months. Smooths seasonality for KPI comparisons.
  • period
  • core
Tenants

Carrier Tenant Count

Number of carriers leasing on a single cell tower. Each additional tenant is high-margin incremental revenue.
  • revenue
  • cell_tower
CF

Capacity Factor

Actual energy generated divided by theoretical maximum. Solar farm productivity measure.
  • energy
  • solar

Industry reference

How the ground lease sector operates.

Comparable public REITs / operators

  • AMT (American Tower)
  • CCI (Crown Castle)
  • SBAC (SBA Communications)
  • HASI (Hannon Armstrong)
  • BEP (Brookfield Renewable)
  • NEP (NextEra Energy Partners)
  • CWEN (Clearway)
  • LAMR (Lamar Advertising)
  • OUT (Outfront Media)
  • SAFE (Safehold)

Frequently asked

Common questions about ground lease.

What is Ground Lease real estate and how is it analyzed?
Ground Lease is a infrastructure property type. Long-term land lease with tenant building improvements. Annuity-like cash flow. Performance is measured under sector conventions including Carrier Tenants, Capacity Factor (solar), Tower Cash Flow, Annual Escalator, Utilization, Sell-Through Rate, NOI, Cap Rate. Public REIT comparables: AMT (American Tower), CCI (Crown Castle), SBAC (SBA Communications), HASI (Hannon Armstrong), BEP (Brookfield Renewable). Ilora.ai ingests sector-standard documents (rent rolls, lease abstracts, P&Ls, operating reports) and benchmarks against SEC EDGAR REIT filings, surfacing under-performance vs comparable institutional assets.