What Is My Billboard Lease Worth?
Short answer: a billboard ground lease is typically worth between $80 and about $1,090 a month, and the single biggest factor is how many vehicles pass the site each day. At 10,000 vehicles per day, fair rent runs roughly $80–$110 a month; at 100,000 vehicles per day it climbs to roughly $820–$1,090 a month. If you're selling the lease outright instead of collecting rent, a lump-sum buyout usually prices at 8 to 12 times your annual rent.
That range is a real starting point, not a guess — it comes from public state DOT traffic counts and a dataset of 37,582 billboard permits. But the honest answer is that your number depends on your exact corner: the road class, the daily traffic on that specific stretch, and whether the spacing rules let a competitor build nearby. Below is how to pin it down, and the one trap that costs landowners the most.
The short answer, by daily traffic
A billboard is a machine that sells eyeballs. The more vehicles that pass your land each day, the more the sign earns — and the more the ground under it is worth. Ground rent typically works out to about 15–20% of the sign's gross advertising revenue on a primary highway (a little less on an interstate), which is why the value tracks traffic so closely.
Here are our 2026 estimates for monthly ground rent on a standard static billboard face, by daily traffic and road class. The low end of each range is roughly what an operator opens with; the high end is closer to fair market.
- 10,000 vehicles/day — $80–$110/month (primary highway) · $75–$105/month (interstate)
- 25,000 vehicles/day — $205–$275/month (primary highway) · $190–$260/month (interstate)
- 50,000 vehicles/day — $410–$545/month (primary highway) · $380–$520/month (interstate)
- 100,000 vehicles/day — $820–$1,090/month (primary highway) · $765–$1,035/month (interstate)
Monthly rent or a lump sum: two different questions
"What is my lease worth" splits into two answers depending on what you want. If you plan to keep collecting a check, the numbers above are your monthly value, and over a 20-year lease that compounds into real money — a $500/month lease is $120,000 of rent before any escalators.
If instead you want to sell the lease for one lump sum — or a billboard company offers to buy a permanent easement — that typically prices at 8 to 12 times annual ground rent: roughly 8x for a cancellable lease buyout, roughly 12x for a permanent easement. If your fair rent is $500 a month ($6,000 a year), a fair buyout is about $48,000 to $72,000. Anything under 8 years of fair-market rent is a weak offer.
The word that matters there is fair-market. Buyout firms often compute the multiple on your current rent — and if you signed an opening offer years ago, that's already a lowball number. Eight times a lowball is a discount on a discount. Establish what your rent should be today first, then apply the multiple.
The trap: worth to you vs. worth to them
Search this question and most of the top results are companies that want to buy your lease. That's not a coincidence — the party that knows your land's value best is the one making you an offer, and their job is to pay the least you'll accept, not the most it's worth. The gap between the opening offer and fair market is their margin, and it's commonly 25% or more.
You close that gap with two facts they'd rather you not have: the actual traffic count on your road, and the spacing rules in your state. Traffic sets the ceiling on rent. Spacing — the minimum distance required between billboards — decides whether the company has other options nearby or whether your corner is the only legal spot for miles. If it's the only spot, you have far more leverage than the first letter suggests.
Both of those facts are public. We pull them for your exact address so you walk into the conversation knowing what they know.
Where these numbers come from (check our work)
Every figure above is built from public data, not anecdotes. Daily traffic (AADT) comes from your state Department of Transportation's published counts. The permit landscape — how many billboards exist near you, who operates them, and how close together the state allows them — comes from state DOT outdoor-advertising permit records: 37,582 permitted structures across Florida, Texas, and Georgia in our current dataset.
From traffic we estimate the sign's advertising revenue, then apply the landowner's typical share (about 15–20% of gross) to get ground rent. The full chain — traffic to impressions to operator revenue to your rent — is written out in the methodology so you can audit each step, or hand it to an attorney who can.
How to find your exact number
A range is useful; your number is better. The free check reads your address, finds the real traffic count on your road, pulls the nearest permitted billboards and the spacing math, and returns your estimated monthly range in about 60 seconds — no cost and no obligation.
If you're weighing an actual offer or a buyout, the full report puts that number in writing with the traffic source, the comparable permits nearby, a fair-market rent range, and a buyout valuation — the kind of documentation that changes how a negotiation goes.
See the numbers for your exact property
Free, ~60 seconds: nearby permits, spacing eligibility, real traffic, and your estimated monthly range — for your address, not a hypothetical.
Run my free check →Frequently asked questions
What is my billboard lease worth?
A billboard ground lease is typically worth $80 to about $1,090 per month, set mainly by daily traffic: roughly $80–$110/month at 10,000 vehicles per day and $820–$1,090/month at 100,000 vehicles per day. Sold as a lump-sum buyout, a lease usually prices at 8–12 times annual rent. Your exact figure depends on the traffic count and road class at your specific address.
How much should a billboard company pay me per month?
Fair monthly ground rent runs about $80–$110 at 10,000 vehicles/day, $205–$275 at 25,000, $410–$545 at 50,000, and $820–$1,090 at 100,000 vehicles/day on a primary highway (slightly less on an interstate). The low end is a typical opening offer; the high end is closer to fair market. First offers commonly come in 25% or more below fair value.
How do I calculate a billboard lease buyout value?
Multiply your annual ground rent by 8 to 12 — about 8x for a cancellable lease buyout and about 12x for a permanent easement. At $500/month ($6,000/year), a fair buyout is roughly $48,000 to $72,000. Critically, run the multiple on fair-market rent, not an old lowball rent, or you compound the discount.
What percentage of billboard revenue does the landowner get?
Ground rent is typically about 15–20% of the sign's gross advertising revenue on a primary highway, and roughly 14–19% on an interstate. That share, applied to the revenue a given traffic count supports, is what produces the monthly rent ranges above.
Is the first billboard lease offer usually fair?
Rarely. The company making the offer knows your land's value better than you do, and the opening number is designed to be the least you'll accept. The gap to fair market is commonly 25% or more. Knowing your traffic count and your state's spacing rules — both public — is how you close it.
How is billboard lease value calculated?
Start with daily traffic (AADT) from your state DOT, estimate the impressions and advertising revenue that traffic supports, then take the landowner's share — about 15–20% of gross — as ground rent. Spacing rules and the number of competing billboards nearby then adjust your leverage up or down. The free check runs this for your exact address.
Keep reading
Market estimates from public state DOT data and the published methodology — not an appraisal, legal advice, or a guarantee of eligibility or outcome. Consult a licensed real estate attorney in your state before signing any lease, buyout, or easement.