Is W.P. Carey a Buy?
When you compare W.P. Carey (NYSE: WPC) to its closest peers, it stands head and shoulders above the pack when it comes to diversification. That's a bigger statement than it appears, given the real estate investment trust's (REIT) investment approach. And, over time, this landlord's model has proven pretty rewarding for dividend investors. But when you look at W.P. Carey right now, at this particular moment, is it worth buying? That's a harder question to answer. Here's a quick primer to get you up to speed.
W.P. Carey is a net lease REIT. That means that while it owns properties, its lessees are generally responsible for most of the costs of the properties they occupy. It's a fairly safe business in which Carey makes the difference between what it charges for rent and its cost of capital. Even better, the leases are usually pretty long, with Carey's average lease length at around 10 years today. Virtually all of its leases include regular rent bumps, too, with 62% of the increases tied directly to inflation measures.
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Source Fool.com
