ESCONDIDO, CALIFORNIA, September 15, 2004—Realty Income Corporation (Realty Income), The Monthly Dividend Company® , (NYSE:O) today announced that its Board of Directors has declared an increase in the Company’s common stock monthly dividend to $0.21875 per share from $0.2175 per share. This is the 28th consecutive quarter in which the Company has increased the amount of its monthly dividend and the 31st increase since Realty Income went public in 1994. The dividend is payable on October 15, 2004 to shareholders of record as of October 1, 2004. The new monthly dividend amount represents an annualized rate of $2.625 per share. The Company continues its long-term policy of declaring and paying common stock dividends on a monthly, rather than on a quarterly, basis.

Tom A. Lewis, Chief Executive Officer of Realty Income commented, “We are delighted to have been able to increase the amount of the monthly dividend again this quarter. With the payment of the October dividend, we will have made 411 consecutive monthly dividend payments. When the current dividend increase is combined with the three previous dividend increases, dividends to shareholders have grown by over 9% so far this year. Our goal is to continue to provide consistent performance results and dependable monthly income to our shareholders. Increasing the amount of the dividend on a regular basis is the best evidence we can provide of our progress towards this goal.”

The Board of Directors also declared a dividend on the Company’s Class D preferred stock that is payable on October 15, 2004 to shareholders of record as of October 1, 2004. The monthly dividend amount on the Class D preferred stock is $0.1536459 per share, for an annualized rate of $1.84375 per share.

Realty Income, The Monthly Dividend Company® , is a real estate company dedicated to providing shareholders with dependable monthly income. To date the Company has declared 411 consecutive monthly dividend payments throughout its 35-year operating history. The monthly dividend is supported by the cash flow from over 1,500 retail properties owned under long-term lease agreements with leading regional and national retail chains. The Company is an active buyer of net-leased retail properties nationwide.

Note to Editors

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Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release, which are not strictly historical, are “forward-looking” statements. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, which may cause the Company’s actual future results to differ materially from expected results. These risks include, among others, general economic conditions, local real estate conditions, the availability of capital to finance planned growth, property acquisitions and the timing of these acquisitions, and the profitability of the Company’s subsidiary, Crest Net Lease, as described in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Consequently, such forward-looking statements should be regarded solely as reflections of the Company’s current operating plans and estimates. Actual operating results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecast in this press release. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly release the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date these statements were made.