McDonald's Ground Leases in Florida: A Mid-2026 Market Note
Dwaine Clarke · NNN Deal Finder / GCT Commercial
Published July 16, 2026
A quick note from the buy side, prompted by three client questions in the same week: what does a McDonald’s ground lease actually cost in Florida right now, and is the premium worth paying?
The short version: Florida McDonald’s paper has been printing at the tight end of the tenant’s national 3.75–4.75% band (VERIFY against current comps — this note reflects mid-2026 activity we’ve seen and heard through broker channels). The usual Florida premium applies for the usual reasons — no state income tax on the rent, 1031 buyer concentration, and exit liquidity that shaves weeks off marketing periods.
What’s driving the spread inside the state
Three patterns worth knowing before you offer. First, term stratification is sharper than usual: fresh 20-year deals from recent rebuilds are commanding meaningful premiums over mid-term paper, while sub-8-year deals — normally the value entry — are drawing renewal-bet buyers at spreads that look thin to us given the optionality you’re giving up. Second, reversion stories are being marketed harder: several offerings lean on building-reversion value at option expiration, which is real but decades out; we’d rather underwrite the rent. Third, relocation risk is quietly present in a handful of corridor deals — the chain keeps upgrading Florida sites, and an aging store a half-mile from a newly permitted pad deserves a hard look at the permit map before your earnest money moves.
The buyer checklist we’re running
On every Florida McDonald’s file this quarter: confirm the lease signatory is corporate (it almost always is here), map permitted QSR development within a mile, date the last remodel against the current prototype, and read the option chain against the escalation schedule — a 10% bump landing in year 3 changes the yield-on-cost math enough to matter at these cap rates.
If you’re identifying in a 1031 window and McDonald’s-in-Florida is the target profile, talk to us before the clock starts. Inventory at the quality tier worth owning moves fast, and the best deals this year have gone to buyers whose criteria were already circulating.