CHICAGO—The “death of retail” has now been announced many, many times, but its demise never seems to happen. There is certainly a lot of turmoil, largely due to the competition provided by e-commerce, but investors remain quite interested in many portions of the sector, especially for single-tenant and small multi-tenant commercial properties. In fact, cap rates for these categories have been stable throughout 2016 and 2017, according to a new national report from Chicago-based Quantum Real Estate Advisors.

“For individuals who bought and sold single tenant deals, it was business as usual during this time,” the firm says. Cap rates did fluctuate from quarter to quarter, but by the end of September, the market was essentially in the same place it was last year at this time. On average, single tenant properties traded at 6.18% in the third quarter.

But buyers have become somewhat more risk averse. “The market saw changes in interest rates and banks deleveraging, making it more difficult to get financing on a variety of asset classes,” the firm says. “Buyers are not purchasing extremely low cap rates in the same volume as in previous years.”