Glossary

Quick, precise definitions for the terms that come up again and again.

1. 01Cap RateThe single number that tells you how much the market trusts a building's future.
2. 02NOI (Net Operating Income)Before a building can be priced, financed, or compared to anything else, someone has to answer one honest question: how much does it actually make?
3. 03LTV (Loan-to-Value)One ratio decides how thin a cushion stands between an investor and a lender's loss.
4. 04IRR (Internal Rate of Return)A single percentage that tries to compress five uneven years of cash going in and out into one honest verdict.
5. 05Triple Net Lease (NNN)The lease structure where the landlord's job description shrinks down to almost nothing but collecting a check.
6. 06REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust)The structure that lets someone with a few hundred dollars own a sliver of a skyscraper they'll never set foot in.
7. 07FAR (Floor Area Ratio)Two identical plots of land can be worth wildly different amounts, and the reason usually has nothing to do with the dirt itself.
8. 08Cap Rate DecompressionThe quiet mechanism by which rising interest rates make buildings worth less, even when the rent checks never stop arriving.
9. 09Data CenterA warehouse that trades in electricity, not floor space — and prices accordingly.
10. 10TokenizationWhat a REIT did for ownership at the scale of a share, tokenization is trying to do again at the scale of a coupon.