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Same-Store NOI

Same-store NOI isolates organic property performance from acquisitions, giving the cleanest read on a REIT's existing portfolio

What NOI Measures

See the glossary for a one-line definition of NOI and other terms used throughout this guide. Net Operating Income, or NOI, is a property-level profitability measure: rental revenue (and other property income, like parking or storage fees) minus property operating expenses, think utilities, property taxes, insurance, repairs, and on-site staff. It's calculated before corporate overhead, interest expense, and depreciation, which makes it a clean measure of how a property itself is performing, independent of how it's financed or owned.

Why Same-Store

A REIT's total portfolio NOI can grow simply because the company bought more buildings, that says very little about whether its existing properties are actually getting healthier. Same-store NOI (sometimes called "same-property NOI") solves this by comparing only the properties owned and stabilized throughout both periods being compared, excluding recent acquisitions, dispositions, and properties still in development or lease-up. The result isolates organic, apples-to-apples performance.

Illustration: a REIT's total portfolio NOI grows from $100 million to $115 million year over year, a 15% increase. But $12 million of that increase came from a property acquired mid-year. Looking only at the properties owned throughout both periods, same-store NOI grew from $95 million to $98 million, roughly 3%. The 15% headline number and the 3% same-store number are both accurate; they're just answering different questions.

What Drives Same-Store NOI Growth

For most property types, same-store NOI growth comes down to two levers on the revenue side, plus expense control:

• Occupancy - more of the available space generating rent (see occupancy, leasing spreads and WALT)
• Rent growth - higher rent on both new and renewing leases
• Expense growth - keeping property operating costs from rising faster than revenue

Because it's the cleanest available read on organic portfolio health, same-store NOI growth is one of the most closely watched lines in every REIT's quarterly earnings release.

Reading the Fine Print

"Same-store" isn't a term with one universal legal definition, each REIT discloses its own methodology for which properties are included and excluded (a property might need to have been owned and stabilized for, say, at least twelve or twenty-four full months to qualify) and that pool can shift slightly quarter to quarter. When comparing same-store growth rates across two different REITs, it's worth checking that footnote rather than assuming both companies are measuring the same thing the same way.

From NOI to Property Value

NOI isn't only a growth metric, it's also the numerator in a cap rate calculation, connecting a property's operating performance directly to how it might be valued in a sale or acquisition. Strong, consistent same-store NOI growth is one of the qualitative factors that can support a lower cap rate (higher valuation) for a given property in the private market.

Where to Find It

Same-store NOI isn't part of the standard GAAP income statement, it's disclosed in the earnings press release and, in more detail, in the quarterly supplemental package. See how to read a REIT earnings supplement. This figure isn't yet part of this site's own datasets; each REIT's profile page links directly to the company's latest 8-K filing, which is where the earnings release (and, from the company's investor relations site, the fuller supplemental) can be found.

Cash vs. GAAP Same-Store NOI

NOI deliberately excludes capital expenditures, income taxes, and any corporate-level costs like executive compensation or public-company reporting expenses - the goal is to isolate the economics of the physical property itself, as if it were owned free and clear with no debt and no corporate overhead layered on top. On the expense side, the line items to watch most closely are typically property taxes (which can jump sharply after a reassessment following a sale or renovation), insurance, utilities, and repairs and maintenance. A REIT can grow same-store revenue nicely and still see same-store NOI growth disappoint if expenses are rising even faster.

Similar to the cash-versus-GAAP distinction used for leasing spreads, some REITs report same-store NOI on both a cash basis (actual rent collected in the period) and a GAAP basis (which includes the straight-line rent adjustment described in the AFFO guide). The two can tell slightly different growth stories in a given quarter, particularly for portfolios with a lot of new leases still ramping up through their contractual rent steps, so it's worth checking which basis a same-store growth figure is quoted on before comparing it to another REIT's number.

Methodology footnotes matter in practice, too: a REIT that acquired a large portfolio eighteen months ago might only add those properties into its same-store pool once they've been owned for a full twenty-four months under its stated policy, meaning a single large acquisition can noticeably change what counts as "same-store" from one year to the next, purely as a matter of timing rather than any change in methodology. This is also why same-store NOI growth is watched by both public REIT investors and private real estate buyers alike - it's one of the few metrics that translates directly across both worlds.

See it in the data: See a REIT profile → Compare REIT sectors →

Research and education only — nothing here is investment advice. Figures such as the 90% distribution rule are general and can change; always confirm against a company's filings.