"The net lease market is becoming increasingly saturated as more players enter," Gino Sabatini, head of investments and managing director at W. P. Carey, tells GlobeSt.com. Sabatini is speaking on the State of the Industry: Post-Pandemic Recovery panel at the GlobeSt.com Net Lease conference later this month, where he will discuss the recent explosion in net lease investment.

One major reason investors are flocking to the asset class: resiliency. Many net lease properties performed well through the pandemic. "Net lease fared extremely well during the pandemic. Similar to what we saw during the global financial crisis in 2008, net lease properties attracted significant investor interest during COVID as they provide long-term, dependable income," says Sabatini, noting that not all net lease assets held up through the challenging year. "Office and retail struggled due to lockdowns and work-from-home mandates, but industrial thrived as e-commerce picked up," he says.

Those property types remain a challenge for investors today, well into the recovery. "Investors are still grappling with certain property types that were highly impacted by COVID, particularly office," says Sabatini. "However, there's optimism on the horizon as more employees return to the office and big tech companies like Google make investments in office space."