Sale and lease-back


Sale and lease-back

Sale of an existing asset to a financial institution that then leases it back to the user. Related: Lease.

Sale-Leaseback

The sale of a property in which the seller immediately begins to rent the property from the buyer. That is, the seller no longer has ownership of the property, but maintains residence and/or use for the duration of the rental agreement. A sale-leaseback gives the seller profit from the sale while the buyer is guaranteed income from the rental agreement in the medium or long-term. Sometimes, a sale-leaseback occurs in order to grant the seller access to capital to make improvement on the property; for example, the seller may use the proceeds from the sale to build a factory. A form of sale-leaseback, known as sukuk al-ijara, is a common structure for sukuk, or the equivalent of a bond, in Islamic finance. Sale-leaseback is also called simply leaseback.