Rex says
Money math without the spreadsheet headache. Plug in your numbers and I'll show you exactly where the dollars land.
Try a scenario
Click to load — tweak from there.Inputs
Result
Ending annual rent
$161,270
Cumulative rent over term
$1,416,935
Average annual growth rate
3.00%
Total rent growth over term
34%
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How to use this
- 1Enter current annual base rent ($).
- 2Enter escalation structure.
- 3Enter escalation rate (%).
- 4Enter step interval (if periodic) (years).
- 5Enter remaining lease term (years).
- 6Read your ending annual rent on the right — it updates as you type.
- 7Hit Share to keep the scenario or send it to someone.
About this calculator
Triple-net (NNN) leases pass property taxes, insurance, and maintenance through to the tenant, so the landlord's rent roll growth comes almost entirely from contractual escalations built into the lease. Common structures are fixed annual bumps (2-3% is typical for credit-tenant retail and industrial), fixed periodic bumps (10% every five years is common in longer-term ground leases), or CPI-linked adjustments with a floor and ceiling. This calculator projects base rent year by year under either a fixed annual escalator or a periodic step structure, showing the ending rent and the average annual growth rate, which matters directly for valuing the leasehold at sale — a stronger escalation schedule supports a lower going-in cap rate because the buyer is underwriting real, contracted NOI growth rather than hoping for market rent growth at renewal. When comparing two NNN properties with similar starting cap rates, the one with 3% annual bumps will meaningfully outearn one with flat rent and a single 10% bump at year five over any hold period longer than about six years, which is the kind of detail that gets lost if you only compare year-one cap rates.
Worked example
Using the values the calculator loads with:
Inputs
- Current annual base rent: 120000 $
- Escalation structure: Fixed annual %
- Escalation rate: 3 %
- Step interval (if periodic): 5 years
- Remaining lease term: 10 years
Results
- Ending annual rent: $161,270
- Cumulative rent over term: $1,416,935
- Average annual growth rate: 3.00%
- Total rent growth over term: 34%
What each field means
Inputs
- Current annual base rent ($)
- The current annual base rent used in the calculation, measured in $. Starts at 120000 $ so you have a working example on load.
- Escalation structure
- Pick the option that matches your situation — the maths changes per option. Choices: Fixed annual %, Periodic step every N years.
- Escalation rate (%)
- The escalation rate used in the calculation, measured in %. Starts at 3 % so you have a working example on load. Accepted range: 0–15 %.
- Step interval (if periodic) (years)
- The step interval (if periodic) used in the calculation, measured in years. Starts at 5 years so you have a working example on load. Accepted range: 1–10 years.
- Remaining lease term (years)
- The remaining lease term used in the calculation, measured in years. Starts at 10 years so you have a working example on load. Accepted range: 1–30 years.
Results
- Ending annual rent
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars and shown as the headline result. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Cumulative rent over term
- Returned as a money amount in US dollars. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Average annual growth rate
- Returned as a percentage. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
- Total rent growth over term
- Returned as a percentage. It recalculates instantly whenever you change an input, so you can compare scenarios without reloading.
FAQ
What's a typical NNN escalation for credit tenants?
Investment-grade national tenants (Walgreens, Dollar General, major QSR chains) commonly sign 1.5-2.5% annual bumps or 5-10% step-ups every five years; weaker or local tenants sometimes negotiate flat rent for the first few years with escalations starting later.
How do CPI-linked escalations work and why include a floor?
CPI-linked rent adjusts to actual inflation, which protects the landlord in high-inflation periods but risks near-zero growth if inflation is low, so most CPI leases include a floor (e.g., minimum 1.5%) and often a ceiling (e.g., maximum 4%) to bound the range for both parties.
Does a stronger escalation schedule always justify a lower cap rate?
Generally yes for otherwise comparable tenant credit and lease term, since a buyer is underwriting more certain future NOI growth. But weigh it against remaining lease term — strong escalations on a lease with only 3 years left matter far less than the same escalations on a fresh 15-year term, since near-term rollover risk dominates the valuation.
How does this interact with percentage rent clauses?
This calculator only handles base rent escalation; some NNN retail leases add percentage rent above a sales breakpoint, which is a separate, revenue-dependent income stream layered on top of the contractual base rent modeled here.
Accuracy and limitations
- Results are estimates before tax, fees, and inflation unless an input explicitly covers them.
- Rates are treated as fixed for the whole period — variable-rate products will drift from this projection.
- This is educational maths, not financial advice. Check anything contractual with the lender or your accountant.
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Cite this calculator
Writing about this topic? Grab a citation — every link helps keep these tools free.
RevenueLab. (2026). Commercial NNN Lease Escalation Calculator. Retrieved from https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/commercial-nnn-lease-escalations
<p>Source: <a href="https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/commercial-nnn-lease-escalations" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Commercial NNN Lease Escalation Calculator — RevenueLab</a> (2026).</p>
Source: [Commercial NNN Lease Escalation Calculator — RevenueLab](https://www.revenuelab.fyi/toolbox/commercial-nnn-lease-escalations) (2026).