Every Commercial Lease Type, Mapped

One page, the whole taxonomy — each type linked to its deep dive where we have one. The organizing axis never changes: expense responsibility, sliding from landlord to tenant.

The gross family

Full-service gross (detail): landlord pays everything; office towers’ native structure. Modified gross (detail): negotiated splits, base years, expense stops — the messy middle where office and flex live.

The net family

Single net (N): tenant adds property taxes — rare in the wild. Double net (NN) (detail): taxes and insurance to the tenant; landlord keeps the shell — common in auto parts and older retail paper. Triple net (NNN) (the guide): the three expense buckets go tenant-side; allocation of roof and structure varies by document. Absolute net (inventory): everything, no exceptions — the bond-like end of the spectrum. Ground lease (detail): tenant owns its building on your land; decades-long, absolute by construction, reversion at the end.

The specialty types

Percentage lease: base rent plus a percentage of tenant sales above a breakpoint — malls and grocery-anchored retail; sales reporting rights become the landlord’s underwriting window. Sale-leaseback paper (detail): structurally a net lease, born at a closing table, priced by its own rules. Lease options and lease-purchase (detail): occupancy with equity mechanics attached. Synthetic and credit-tenant leases: financing instruments wearing lease costumes — specialist territory.

Using the map

Match the structure to your role: passive income capital belongs on the net family’s far end; operating skill earns its return in the gross family; hybrids reward whoever reads them most carefully. Every listing’s label is marketing until the expense articles confirm it — the taxonomy’s only rule that always pays.