Buyers want to know where to look. Sellers want to know how their location affects value. I’ve been tracking meaningful Long Island retail investment sales for a long time — not every building that changes hands, but the deals that actually tell you something about the market.
The gap between Nassau and Suffolk is real, it’s consistent, and it shows up in every category.
Strip malls in Nassau average a 6.71% cap rate. Suffolk averages 7.24% — about 53 basis points higher. On a $3M property, that spread represents roughly $160,000 in implied value.
NNN single-tenant assets follow the same pattern. Nassau averages 5.42%. Suffolk averages 5.92%.
Price per square foot tells the same story. Nassau strip malls are trading around $390/SF. Suffolk around $361/SF. The gap is more pronounced in NNN — Nassau is averaging $1,194/SF versus $863/SF in Suffolk, a 38% premium.
The reasons aren’t complicated. Nassau is closer to the city, trade areas are denser, and there’s almost no land left to build on. If a tenant wants to be in Merrick or Rockville Centre, they have to go into an existing building. That scarcity keeps rents up and vacancy low.
Suffolk is a less uniform market. Cap rates run from the low 5s to over 9% depending on location, asset quality, and how far east you go. Melville trades very differently than East Islip. The Hamptons are their own category — seasonal demand, tourist-driven retail, and buyers willing to accept yields that wouldn’t make sense anywhere else on the Island.
Strip that out and the rest of Suffolk runs higher than Nassau on yield, with more variation in outcomes and a wider range of asset quality. Nassau’s distribution is tighter and more predictable.
Higher cap rates in Suffolk mean more yield. They also mean you have to know what you’re buying.