Ground lease

A ground lease separates land from improvements: the fee owner leases the ground long-term, and the leasehold tenant owns and operates the building on it for the term, financing it with leasehold mortgages. Decades-long terms, periodic rent resets — often keyed to appraised land value — and a reversion of improvements at expiration define the structure's economics.

The clock is the analysis: remaining term drives financeability and value; reset formulas can multiply ground rent when land appreciation flows into one repricing (the mechanism behind documented distress in ground-lease co-ops); and expiry approaches convert the building's value toward the fee. Recorded memoranda of lease, leasehold mortgages, and assignments make the structure visible in the public record.