Debt maturities are a big consideration in all areas of commercial real estate, including net lease. The topic came up in most recent earnings call for Global Net Lease (GNL), one of the largest public REITs focused on net lease.

The reason for a focus on debt maturities and the connected topic of interest rates is because they put pressure on all CRE businesses. The stock price reflects concerns about macroeconomics and finance. There was a sharp plummet starting late February 2020, which makes sense given pandemic-related shutdowns of retail businesses. With the advent of successful vaccines, the price regained ground to within a couple of dollars by June 2022, and then came the Federal Reserve's reaction to inflation — a series of sharp and quick rate hikes. And the stock started falling again, from $19.90 to $7.56 as of March 18, 2024.

The expected wave of CRE loan debt maturities is a problem across CRE. That includes net lease properties.