Looking to buy an Applebee's NNN property? 28 are observed for sale across 16 states, median asking cap rate 7.00%. View Applebee's NNN properties for sale, cap rate bands and the 1031 buyer guide.
| Metric | Details |
|---|---|
| Lease Tenant | Often a franchisee; confirm the tenant and any guarantor named in the lease |
| Parent Company | Dine Brands Global, Inc. (NYSE: DIN) |
| S&P / Moody’s Rating | no verified rating |
| Rating Outlook | N/A |
| Investment Grade Status | Not Yet Verified |
| Sector | Restaurant / Casual Dining |
| Headquarters | Pasadena, California (Dine Brands HQ) |
| Location Count | 1,557 restaurants worldwide, 1,439 franchised and 118 company-owned (June 28, 2026, Form 10-Q) |
| Median asking cap rate | See the live table below |
| Typical Lease Term | Varies; confirm in the lease |
| Guarantee Type | Often franchisee: 1,439 of 1,557 restaurants were franchised as of June 28, 2026 (Form 10-Q); confirm in the lease |
| Typical Building Size | Median 5,053 SF in the current Applebee’s listings we track; varies by site |
Applebee's: no confirmed agency rating. No rating for Applebee's has been verified against a primary source (an agency rating action or an issuer filing), so none is shown. If a rating is verified, it will appear here. Ratings checked September 27, 2026. See the investment grade credit tenant ratings table.
Applebee’s Business Overview & NNN Investment Profile
Applebee’s Neighborhood Grill + Bar, which Dine Brands describes as one of the world’s largest casual dining brands, had 1,557 restaurants as of June 28, 2026 (Form 10-Q). The brand is owned by Dine Brands Global (NYSE: DIN), which also operates IHOP and the fast-casual Fuzzy’s Taco Shop. Dine Brands operates a mostly franchised model: 1,439 of the 1,557 Applebee’s restaurants were franchised and 118 company-owned as of June 28, 2026 (Form 10-Q), after Dine acquired 60 restaurants from franchisees in 2026. That creates a distinctive NNN investment dynamic: many Applebee’s NNN leases carry franchisee guarantees rather than corporate guarantees from Dine Brands, so confirm the tenant and guarantor in each lease.
Applebee’s domestic system same-restaurant sales fell 1.8% in the second quarter of 2026 (Form 10-Q, June 28, 2026). The brand has had net restaurant closures, with 12 more closures than openings in the second quarter of 2026, so underwrite each site on its own sales and rent coverage.
We could not confirm a current agency rating for Dine Brands Global, Inc. The critical distinction for NNN investors is that because most Applebee’s restaurants are franchised, Dine Brands’ corporate credit is often not what stands behind an Applebee’s NNN lease. For a franchised restaurant, the credit behind the lease is the franchise operator or guarantor named in the lease, whose financial strength determines lease performance. Dine Brands reported that its ten largest Applebee’s franchisees owned 82% of franchised Applebee’s restaurants in the United States and that the number of domestic restaurants held by a single franchisee ranged from one to 459 (Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 28, 2025), so a large multi-unit operator can carry a very different credit profile from a small single-market operator. Always verify the specific guarantor entity and request franchisee financial statements before acquiring any Applebee’s NNN property.
Cap Rate Analysis & Pricing for Applebee’s NNN Properties
Live asking cap rates for Applebee’s and comparable tenants:
| Tenant | S&P / Moody’s | Median asking cap rate | Middle half of listings | Listings | Median vs. 10-year Treasury |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chili's | BB+ / n/a | 5.50% | 5.45% to 6.12% | 7 | +26 bps |
| Olive Garden (rated entity: Darden Restaurants, Inc.) | BBB / Baa2 | 5.50% | 5.15% to 5.75% | 9 | +26 bps |
| Applebee's (rated entity: Dine Brands Global, Inc.) | n/a / NR | 7.00% | 6.46% to 7.63% | 26 | +176 bps |
Active listings InvestmentGrade.com tracks with an asking cap rate (stated in the listing, or computed from its stated income and price when no rate is stated), listings last observed October 12, 2026. Asking cap rates are not closed-sale cap rates. The middle half is the range from the 25th to the 75th percentile of listings. The 10-year Treasury yield is 5.24% as of October 1, 2026 (FRED series DGS10). Ratings are the agency ratings in our ratings database for the entity shown, which may be a parent company; the rating type (for example issuer, senior unsecured debt, long-term debt or revenue bond ratings) varies by company and is shown on each tenant page. A rating applies to a lease only if the rated entity signs or guarantees it, so confirm the tenant and any guarantor in the lease. n/a means no verified rating is on file.
Single-unit or weaker operators with shorter remaining terms may price wider than the median in the live table.
| Comparable Restaurant NNN Tenant | S&P / Moody’s |
|---|---|
| IHOP (Dine Brands) | no verified rating |
| Chili’s (Brinker) | BB+ |
| Olive Garden (Darden) | BBB/Baa2 |
Pending verification. No rating for Applebee's has been verified against a primary source (an agency rating action or an issuer filing), so none is shown. If a rating is verified, it will appear here. More importantly, because most Applebee’s restaurants are franchised (1,439 of 1,557 as of June 28, 2026), many NNN leases carry franchisee-level guarantees rather than the Dine Brands corporate credit.
What are asking cap rates for Applebee’s NNN properties?
Current median asking cap rates for Applebee’s and comparable tenants are shown in the live table on this page. Pricing for a specific property depends on the remaining lease term, rent level, location and lease guarantor, and asking cap rates are not closed-sale cap rates.
Brinker International, Inc. carries issuer rating of BB+ from S&P Global Ratings: below the BBB-/Baa3 investment grade threshold. We could not confirm an agency rating for Dine Brands. Brinker operates most domestic Chili’s itself (1,110 company-owned and 99 franchised as of June 24, 2026, Brinker Form 10-K), while most Applebee’s are franchised (1,439 of 1,557 as of June 28, 2026, Dine Brands Form 10-Q). Compare current median asking cap rates for both brands in the live table; pricing for a specific property depends on its tenant, guarantor, site and remaining lease term.
Dine Brands operates IHOP (1,813 restaurants including international), Fuzzy’s Taco Shop (97) and Applebee’s (1,557 including international), as of June 28, 2026 (Form 10-Q). We could not confirm a current corporate issuer rating for Dine Brands; its debt is mainly whole-business securitization notes issued by its Applebee’s and IHOP funding subsidiaries. Because the system is mostly franchised, many NNN leases depend on the individual franchisee operator and any guarantor named in the lease.
Applebee’s Net Lease Property: Buying, Selling and Financing
Buying: We find on-market and off-market Applebee’s properties, review the lease and the tenant’s credit, and compare pricing with current listings. On the majority of transactions, there is no separate fee to you as the buyer; the listing broker pays a cooperating commission.
Selling: We can prepare an opinion of value from current listings and recent sales and, when it fits your goals, run a confidential sale to private investors, family offices and institutional buyers. See our guide to off-market sales.
Financing: Investment Grade Capital, a service of Investment Grade LLC, matches buyers and owners with lenders for acquisitions and refinancing.
1031 exchanges: Tell us your identification and closing deadlines so we can plan the search around them.
Request an NNN investment consultation or email team@investmentgrade.com.
Related NNN Tenants
Compare Applebee’s before you chase the headline cap rate
Many Applebee’s leases rest on franchisee credit rather than Dine Brands’ corporate credit; confirm the tenant and guarantor in each lease. A higher cap rate can be justified, but only if the lease term, unit economics, operator balance sheet, and alternate-use real estate line up.
Start with the 2026 NNN cap-rate framework, then compare higher-credit replacement-property candidates in Best Investment Grade NNN Tenants for a 1031 Exchange.
1031 benchmark: Applebee’s needs franchisee-level underwriting
Compare Applebee’s asking cap rates with other restaurant tenants in the live table, but the 1031 buyer is often underwriting a franchisee lease, not Dine Brands corporate credit. Any higher cap rate only works when operator financials, rent coverage, remaining term, and location quality justify the risk.
Use the 1031 tenant-credit shortlist as a credit baseline, then pressure-test Applebee’s against the 2026 NNN cap-rate framework.
Applebee's NNN Properties Observed For Sale
28 active Applebee's net lease listings observed across public listing sources, most recently Oct 9, 2026. Asking figures as published by the listing party.
| Location | Asking Price | Cap Rate | Building SF | Term Left | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hooksett, NH | $1,610,000 | 6.50% | 5,000 | 3.1 yrs | View listing |
| Worcester, MA | $1,475,000 | 6.50% | 5,479 | n/a | View listing |
| Santa Fe, NM | $1,946,000 | n/a | 6,488 | n/a | View listing |
| Midwest City, OK | $1,815,000 | 5.75% | 4,847 | 8.8 yrs | View listing |
| Lexington, KY | $2,750,000 | 6.00% | 5,138 | n/a | View listing |
| Hastings, MN | $1,784,000 | 9.50% | 5,471 | 1.9 yrs | View listing |
| Cape Girardeau, MO | $1,950,000 | 7.00% | 5,396 | 8.4 yrs | View listing |
| Chillicothe, MO | $1,574,000 | 7.75% | 3,600 | 1.9 yrs | View listing |
Search all 28 observed Applebee's listings and the full NNN inventory
Market observations aggregated from listing broker materials; not offerings by Investment Grade Income Property, LP. Buyer representation available on a cooperating commission basis. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.
