CHICAGO—The historically low cap rates for all major net leasesectors remained unchanged or declined in the fourth quarter,according to a new report from the Boulder Group,a net lease firm in suburban Chicago. Single tenant retailproperties remained at their historic low rate of 6.25% and ratesfor the office and industrial sector reached new historic lows of7.00% and 7.44%. Over the course of 2015, cap rates for retail,office, and industrial properties declined by 15, 35 and 26 bpsrespectively.

Investors' interest hasincreased due to the stable returns generated by this asset class,Boulder officials say. And this intense competition is happening asthe supply of net lease assets on the market goes down. From thethird quarter of 2015 to the fourth quarter of 2015, the overallsupply decreased by more than 11%. Retail assets experienced thelargest decline of 12.5%.

"Thefourth quarter represented the first time in 2015 that the cap ratespread between asking and closed pricing increased for retailproperties," the study says, as buyerspushback on the aggressive pricing sellers have beenseeking this year. The spread for retail increased from 18 bps to23 bps and for office properties it increased from 33 bps to 39bps.