How to value a company that rents out land that it owns?

Hi everyone,

I was tasked with coming up with an indicative valuation or share price for a family-owned company (on my mom's side), as some members are contemplating a sale of their stake. The company in question owns a parcel of land which it rents portions of it out to a few tenants (biggest tenant is a busing company; rest are franchise owners of small convenience stores). The operation is fairly simple as they effectively just collect rental income. There's no other operation that is booked in said company.

What is the most appropriate valuation method that should be applied here? Would it just be a simple DCF of projected cash flows, or do we take the appraised value of the land as the valuation in this case (since it is biggest asset the company owns)?

Happy to hear people's thoughts on this.

6 Comments
 

it's just plain land? or it has also buildings on it (as you talk about franchises). You could also do the sq footage on the land to see how much would it value compared to the market on a sq foot basis, but I think different land depending on zone/etc. has different value, so an appraisal may be more helpful. 

Said that, I would do land appraisal + DCF on remaining CFs from rents + some TV to consider that land tends to increase in value steadily. If you also have authorizations on the land, meaning that absent those you can't do certain things on it (such as buildings, etc.), then you would also add a premium on the price based on how costly/hard is to get it.

Probably some RE guys will give a more technical answer like gross rent multiplier/occupancy adjustments, etc.

incentives trumph ethics
 
Most Helpful

"do we take the appraised value of the land as the valuation in this case (since it is biggest asset the company owns)?"

Depends, do you want to minimize the sale price (minimize the cost for you to purchase the for sale stake)? If so, get another appraisal and tell the appraiser you aren't paying him until he gives you a valuation of $xxx (low valuation) and purchase the other party's share of land at a discount to the market. 

Appraisals aren't an actual fair market value. They're pretty much worthless and are just used as a check in the box. You can make an appraisal say whatever you want.

 

walkerg

"do we take the appraised value of the land as the valuation in this case (since it is biggest asset the company owns)?"

Depends, do you want to minimize the sale price (minimize the cost for you to purchase the for sale stake)? If so, get another appraisal and tell the appraiser you aren't paying him until he gives you a valuation of $xxx (low valuation) and purchase the other party's share of land at a discount to the market. 

Appraisals aren't an actual fair market value. They're pretty much worthless and are just used as a check in the box. You can make an appraisal say whatever you want.

Yup this is true. They just make sure that a property isn’t way overvalued. I recently acquired a property for $1.255mm and I know for a fact from the selling agent that the next highest bid was $1.1250 (which is why I bid only $5k more). There were over 20 bids for the property and the appraiser appraised it at $1.125mm… 

 

Est vel recusandae alias repellendus aspernatur ab architecto sunt. Dolores sunt veniam pariatur accusamus. Id ab unde impedit rerum omnis quaerat.

Officia iusto vitae quia atque inventore quisquam. Ut id voluptas nostrum error. Temporibus omnis nobis aspernatur quis sint veniam pariatur labore. Sed quo ipsum quo et. Quia velit non rem omnis ratione ipsum qui. Adipisci ut et nihil harum hic facere rerum.

Magni ad est numquam. Eligendi explicabo sed illo ut tempore. Voluptatem sed quod sed voluptatem autem. Doloremque voluptate amet eius explicabo qui veritatis. Aliquam occaecati eum recusandae ut ab.

Consequatur laboriosam ut consequatur omnis quae voluptatem. Voluptatem ducimus eius dolore neque. Quisquam vero iste et rem asperiores. Id ratione iusto nihil ad sed dolorum. Atque rem laudantium praesentium iure.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Evercore 01 99.4%
  • Moelis & Company 01 98.8%
  • JPMorgan 01 98.2%
  • Guggenheim Partners 01 97.7%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Morgan Stanley 01 98.8%
  • Evercore 01 98.2%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.6%
  • Banco Santander 01 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Moelis & Company No 99.4%
  • Evercore No 98.8%
  • Morgan Stanley 05 98.2%
  • JPMorgan No 97.7%
  • BMO Capital Markets 12 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Investment Banking

  • Vice President (14) $434
  • Associates (43) $259
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (8) $210
  • 2nd Year Analyst (22) $179
  • Intern/Summer Associate (13) $156
  • 1st Year Analyst (75) $151
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (67) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
3
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
4
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
5
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
6
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
7
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
8
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
bolo up's picture
bolo up
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”