| Lease | A lease is a contract by which the owner of property allows another to use it for a specified time, usually in return for payment. A lease generally constitutes a bargain between the landlord and tenant, containing rights and obligations on both sides. It may come to an end on the expiry of the term; alternatively it may be ended earlier, by the tenant surrendering it to the landlord or by the landlord ending it for the breach of some condition (e.g. failure to pay the rent or leaving the premises in disrepair). A repairing lease is one in which the tenant is obliged to pay for all repairs and is usually bound to leave the property at the end of his lease in the same condition as he found it at the start of the lease. |
| Leaseback | A method of raising finance in which an organization sells its land or buildings to an investor on condition that the investor will lease the property back to the organization for a fixed term at an agreed rental. This releases capital for the organization, enabling it to be used for other purposes. |
| Leasehold Improvements | The cost of improvements for a leased property. |
| Leasing | Hiring equipment, such as a car or a piece of machinery, to avoid the capital cost involved in owning it. In some companies it is advantageous to use capital for other purposes and to lease some equipment, paying for the hire out of income. The equipment is then an asset of the leasing company rather than the lessor. Sometimes a case can be made for leasing rather than purchasing, on the grounds that some equipment quickly becomes obsolete. |
| Lender Margin | The profit the lender expects to receive from the loan. |
| LIBOR | LIBOR stands for London Inter Bank Offer Rate. It's the rate of interest at which banks offer to lend money to one another in the wholesale money markets in London. It is a standard financial index used in U.S. capital markets and can be found in the Wall Street Journal. In general, its changes have been smaller than changes in the prime rate. |
| Line of Credit | An arrangement in which a lender extends a specified amount of unsecured credit to a borrower for a specified time period. |
| Loan Origination Fee | A fee charged by a lender to prepare all the documents associated with a mortgage. |
| Loan to Value (LTV) | Proposed loan amount divide by the value of a property. |
| Lock - In | A fixed interest rate for a specific period of time irrelevant of future or impending changes to the interest rate. |
