WARLT Explained: The Hidden Metric That Strengthens OPEN’s Returns

When assessing a real estate fund, most investors rightly focus on yield, risk and asset quality. But there’s a powerful, often overlooked metric that speaks volumes about a portfolio’s stability and future income: WARLT.

WARLT stands for Weighted Average Remaining Lease Term. In simple terms, it tells you the average amount of time left on the leases in a property portfolio, weighted by the rental income each lease generates. The longer the WARLT, the more income is secured for a longer period, providing predictability and reducing risk.

As of 2025, Greenman OPEN’s WARLT is 9.63 years, significantly higher than the market average. Grocery anchored assets like those in OPEN’s portfolio, tend to be higher than other retailers because food retailers rely on long term store locations and rarely relocate once established. For reference, many high street leases run for only three to six years. A WARLT of nearly ten years indicates that the vast majority of OPEN’s income is securely locked in for the long term.

This directly benefits investors in three key ways:

Predictable income: it provides high visibility on the cash flow the fund will generate for years to come, supporting stable distributions to investors.

Reduced Vacancy Risk: it minimised the near-term risk and cost of properties sitting empty or needing to be re-let.

Shields Against Market Shifts: it protects the portfolio from short-term fluctuations in the rental market, as rents are contractually set for a long duration.

The strength of OPEN’s WARLT is also reflected in its approach to tenant relationships, which is built on long term partnerships with high quality, essential retailers. OPEN’s portfolio is leased to some of Europe’s leading grocery retailers like Lidl, Aldi, EDEKA and Kaufland. These tenants view their locations, not as short-term leases, but as long-term, strategic assets for their business.

One practical example of this approach is the sustainable framework agreement that Greenman OPEN signed with Kaufland (Owned by the same company as Lidl) in 2024. A sustainable framework agreement sets out how a landlord and retailer will upgrade and improve a group of properties over time. As part of this agreement, the seven retail centres will be modernised and made more energy efficient, including the installation of photovoltaic systems, EV charging and innovative technologies such as Direct Air Capture, along with support for social and educational projects that strengthen community engagement. In connection with these improvements, Kaufland committed to a new 20-year lease across the centres. These leases added approximately 0.5 years to OPEN’s WARLT and will generate approximately €28 million in contracted rent to term.

When assessing a real estate fund, understanding how secure its income will be over time is essential, and WARLT is one of the clearest indicators of long term stability.