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European Commercial Ground Rents

Commercial Ground Rents (‘CGR’) provide investors with index linked cashflows that have bond-like characteristics and offer property owners an attractive form of long-term finance. The parties to a CGR are akin to a borrower and lender, although the relationship is governed by a lease not a loan.

A CGR is a financing structure whereby a real estate owner or acquirer sells the freehold land to an investor and simultaneously agrees a long-term lease back (generally over 99 years) allowing continued use of the property.

Whilst this is a real estate transaction, the effect is to create a long-term inflation linked bond-like structure for the investor. The property asset acts as collateral, in case the leaseholder defaults on the agreed lease payments (as with any mortgage or debt instrument), increasing the security of the ‘bond’.

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