Only 86 other U.S. public companies, including only two other REITs, can offer that impressive track record of consistent dividend growth to investors.
We're also issuing guidance for 2022 core FFO per share of $2.90 to $2.97, reflecting approximately 4% growth over 2021 from midpoint to midpoint.
Our portfolio of 3,195 freestanding single-tenant retail properties continues to perform exceedingly well.
Occupancy ticked up slightly from the prior quarter to 98.6% and remains above our long-term average of 98%.
We also announced collection of 99% of rents due for the third quarter.
During the third quarter, we invested $247 million in 49 new properties at an initial cash cap rate of 6.4% and with an average lease duration of 19 years.
Year-to-date, we've invested $455 million in 107 new properties at an initial cash cap rate of 6.5% and an average lease duration of 18 years.
We've increased our 2021 acquisition guidance to a range of $550 million to $600 million.
And we've issued initial guidance for 2022 acquisitions in the range of $550 million to $650 million as we anticipate returning to our typical pre-pandemic run rate of acquisition volume.
During the third quarter, we also sold 27 properties, raising $30 million of proceeds to be reinvested into new acquisitions.
Year-to-date, we've now raised over $70 million from the sale of 53 properties, divided roughly equally between leased properties and vacant properties.
Our balance sheet remains one of the strongest in our sector, highlight by -- highlighted by our issuance of $450 million of 3% interest-only 30-year notes in September.
With over $200 million of cash remaining after redemption of our 5.2% preferred in October, a zero balance on our $1.1 billion line of credit, no material debt maturities until 2024 and a weighted average debt duration of almost 15 years, we have one of the strongest balance sheets in our sector and remain well positioned to fund future acquisitions and take advantage of opportunities that may present themselves.
That's up $0.01 from the preceding second quarter $0.70 per share and up $0.09 from the prior year's $0.62 per share.
Today, we also reported that AFFO was $0.75 per share for the third quarter.
That's down $0.02 from the preceding second quarter $0.77, and that's largely a result of scheduled deferral repayments beginning to taper off from the peak levels in the first half of 2021.
We did footnote this AFO -- this AFFO amount included $4.3 million of deferred rent payment in our accrued rental income adjustment for the third quarter, without which would have produced AFFO of $0.73 per share.
Excluding all deferral repayments, our AFFO dividend payout ratio for the first nine months was 73.5%, and that's fairly consistent with prior year levels.
As Jay noted, occupancy was 98.6% at quarter end.
G&A expense was $11.1 million for the third quarter, and that increase for the quarter and the nine months is really largely driven by incentive compensation.
We ended the quarter with $706 million of annual base rent in place for all leases as of September 30, 2021.
As Jay mentioned, rent collections continue to remain strong in the third quarter with rent collections of approximately 99% for the third quarter.
Collections from our cash-basis tenants, which represent about $50 million or 7.1% of our total annual base rent, improved to approximately 94% for the third quarter.
That's up from 92% in the second quarter and 80% previously reported in the first quarter of 2021.
We -- today, we did increase our 2021 core FFO per share guidance to a range of $2.75 to $2.80 per share, and that's up from a range -- I'm sorry, we increased it from a range of $2.75 to $2.80 to a new range of $2.80 to $2.84 per share and similarly increased the AFFO guidance to a range of $3 to $3.04 per share.
Notably, this guidance exceeds our 2019 results by approximately 2% to 2.5% despite the headwinds and reduced acquisition levels in 2020.
And they're largely unchanged from last quarter's guidance with the exception of the increased acquisition guidance of $550 million to $600 million of acquisitions versus the previous guidance of $400 million to $500 million.
We expect to continue the high level of rent collection rates but have assumed a total of 1.5%, 1.5% of potential rent loss.
In time, we're optimistic that will drift back toward our usual 1% rent loss assumption in our guidance.
Today, we also initiated 2022 core FFO per share guidance of $2.90 to $2.97 per share.
That represents a 4.1% increase over 2021 results using the guidance midpoint for both years.
We've assumed rent collections remain at high levels and have assumed potential rent loss of 1.5% of annual base rent.
Largely as a result of the $450 million, 30-year 3% debt offering we completed in September, we ended the third quarter with $543.5 million of cash on hand.
However, $345 million of that cash was used shortly after quarter end on October 15 to redeem our 5.2% preferred stock.
So that would have left us with approximately $200 million of cash on a pro forma basis and no amounts outstanding on our $1.1 billion bank credit facility at quarter end.
Weighted average debt maturity is now approximately 14.9 years with a 3.7% weighted average fixed interest rate.
Our next debt maturity is $350 million of 3.9% coupon debt that's due in mid-2024.
A couple of leverage debt -- net debt to gross book assets was 39.8%.
Net debt-to-EBITDA was 5.4 times, and that's at September 30.
Interest coverage was 4.8 times and fixed charge coverage was 4.2 times for the third quarter of 2021.

Summary:
Today, we also reported that AFFO was $0.75 per share for the third quarter.
We -- today, we did increase our 2021 core FFO per share guidance to a range of $2.75 to $2.80 per share, and that's up from a range -- I'm sorry, we increased it from a range of $2.75 to $2.80 to a new range of $2.80 to $2.84 per share and similarly increased the AFFO guidance to a range of $3 to $3.04 per share.
Today, we also initiated 2022 core FFO per share guidance of $2.90 to $2.97 per share.