Basis of Presentation (Policies)	3 Months Ended
Basis of Presentation (Policies)	Mar. 31, 2014
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Basis of Consolidation	Basis of Consolidation Our consolidated financial statements reflect all of our accounts, including those of our controlled subsidiaries and our tenancy-in-common interests as described below. The portion of equity in a consolidated subsidiary that is not attributable, directly or indirectly, to us is presented as noncontrolling interests. All significant intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated. At March 31, 2014, we had six investments in tenancy-in-common interests in various domestic and international properties, five of which we consolidate because we own 100% of these investments and account for the remaining jointly-owned investment using the equity method of accounting. Consolidation of this investment is not required as such interest does not qualify as a VIE and do not meet the control requirement required for consolidation. Accordingly, we account for this investment using the equity method of accounting. We use the equity method of accounting because the shared decision-making involved in a tenancy-in-common interest investment provides us with significant influence on the operating and financial decisions of these investments. We apply accounting guidance for consolidation of VIEs to certain entities in which the equity investors do not have the characteristics of a controlling financial interest or do not have sufficient equity at risk for the entity to finance its activities without additional subordinated financial support from other parties. Fixed price purchase and renewal options within a lease as well as certain decision-making rights within a loan can cause us to consider an entity a VIE. In connection with the CPA^®:16 Merger, we acquired 12 VIEs from CPA^®:16 – Global. We consider these entities VIEs because the leases have either fixed price purchase or renewal options. In connection with our acquisition of a property during the three months ended March 31, 2014 (Note 5), we assigned the property to a third-party special purpose entity, or SPE, and provided a loan to the SPE to purchase the property. The SPE is funded solely from that loan and does not have any equity investment at risk. As such, the SPE is deemed to be a VIE in which we are the primary beneficiary and which we consolidate. Additionally, we own interests in single-tenant net-leased properties leased to companies through noncontrolling interests in partnerships and limited liability companies that we do not control but over which we exercise significant influence. We account for these investments under the equity method of accounting. At times, the carrying value of our equity investments may fall below zero for certain investments. We intend to fund our share of the investments’ future operating deficits should the need arise. However, we have no legal obligation to pay for any of the liabilities of such investments nor do we have any legal obligation to fund operating deficits.
Recent Accounting Requirements	Recent Accounting Requirements The following Accounting Standards Update, or ASU, promulgated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board is applicable to us: ASU 2014-08, Presentation of Financial Statements (Topic 205) and Property, Plant, and Equipment (Topic 360). ASU 2014-08 changes the requirements for reporting discontinued operations. A discontinued operation may include a component of an entity or a group of components of an entity, or a business. Under this new guidance, a disposal of a component of an entity or a group of components of an entity is required to be reported in discontinued operations if the disposal represents a “strategic shift that has or will have a major effect on an entity’s operations and financial results.” The new guidance also requires disclosures including pretax profit or loss and significant gains or losses arising from dispositions that represent an “individually significant component of an entity,” but do not meet the criteria to be reported as discontinued operations under ASU 2014-08. In the ordinary course of business we sell properties, which, under prior accounting guidance, we generally reported as discontinued operations; however, under ASU 2014-08 such property dispositions typically would not meet the criteria to be reported as discontinued operations. We elected to early adopt ASU 2014-08 prospectively for all dispositions after December 31, 2013. Consequently, individually significant properties that were sold or classified as held-for-sale during 2014 were not reclassified to discontinued operations in the consolidated statements of income, but have been disclosed in Note 16 to the consolidated financial statements. By contrast, and as required by the new guidance, the results for the current and prior year period reflect as discontinued operations in the consolidated statements of income all dispositions and assets classified as held for sale through December 31, 2013 that were deemed under the prior accounting guidance to be discontinued operations, as well as those assets classified as held-for-sale as part of the CPA^®:16 Merger. This ASU did not have a significant impact on our financial position or results of operations for any of the periods presented.
Fair Value Measurement	The fair value of an asset is defined as the exit price, which is the amount that would either be received when an asset is sold or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. The guidance establishes a three-tier fair value hierarchy based on the inputs used in measuring fair value. These tiers are: Level 1, for which quoted market prices for identical instruments are available in active markets, such as money market funds, equity securities and U.S. Treasury securities; Level 2, for which there are inputs other than quoted prices included within Level 1 that are observable for the instrument, such as certain derivative instruments including interest rate caps and swaps; and Level 3, for securities that do not fall into Level 1 or Level 2 and for which little or no market data exists, therefore requiring us to develop our own assumptions.
Earnings Per Share	Under current authoritative guidance for determining earnings per share, all unvested share-based payment awards that contain non-forfeitable rights to distributions are considered to be participating securities and therefore are included in the computation of earnings per share under the two-class method. The two-class method is an earnings allocation formula that determines earnings per share for each class of common shares and participating security according to dividends declared (or accumulated) and participation rights in undistributed earnings. Our unvested RSUs and RSAs contain rights to receive non-forfeitable distribution equivalents, and therefore we apply the two-class method of computing earnings per share. The calculation of earnings per share below excludes the income attributable to the unvested RSUs and RSAs from the numerator.
Redeemable Noncontrolling Interest	We account for the noncontrolling interest in WPCI held by a third party as a redeemable noncontrolling interest, as we have an obligation to repurchase the interest at fair value, subject to certain conditions. This obligation is required to be settled in shares of our common stock. The third-party interest is reflected at estimated redemption value for all periods presented.
Discontinued Operations	From time to time, we may decide to sell a property. We may make a decision to dispose of a property when it is vacant as a result of tenants vacating space, tenants electing not to renew their leases, tenant insolvency, or lease rejection in the bankruptcy process. In such cases, we assess whether we can obtain the highest value from the property by selling it, as opposed to re-leasing it. We may also sell a property when we receive an unsolicited offer or negotiate a price for an investment that is consistent with our strategy for that investment. When it is appropriate to do so, we classify the property as an asset held for sale on our consolidated balance sheet and, for those properties sold or classified as held-for-sale prior to January 1, 2014, the current and prior period results of operations of the property have been reclassified as discontinued operations under current accounting guidance (Note 2).

Disclosure of accounting policy regarding (1) the principles it follows in consolidating or combining the separate financial statements, including the principles followed in determining the inclusion or exclusion of subsidiaries or other entities in the consolidated or combined financial statements and (2) its treatment of interests (for example, common stock, a partnership interest or other means of exerting influence) in other entities, for example consolidation or use of the equity or cost methods of accounting. The accounting policy may also address the accounting treatment for intercompany accounts and transactions, noncontrolling interest, and the income statement treatment in consolidation for issuances of stock by a subsidiary.

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- Definition

Disclosure of accounting policy for any discontinued operations. The results of operations of a component of an entity that either has been disposed of or is classified as held for sale is reported in discontinued operations if both: (a) the operations and cash flows of the component have been (or will be) eliminated from the ongoing operations of the entity as a result of the disposal transaction and (b) the entity will not have any significant continuing involvement in the operations of the component after the disposal transaction. If the entity elects to allocate interest expense to a discontinued operation, it may disclose its accounting policy for this election and describe its method of allocation.

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- Definition

Disclosure of accounting policy for computing basic and diluted earnings or loss per share for each class of common stock and participating security. Addresses all significant policy factors, including any antidilutive items that have been excluded from the computation and takes into account stock dividends, splits and reverse splits that occur after the balance sheet date of the latest reporting period but before the issuance of the financial statements.

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