Glossary

When a lender pushes back a loan's due date instead of foreclosing, hoping the building's value or income recovers before the new deadline. It avoids taking a loss today, but if the property keeps struggling, the problem just shows up later. That is a big reason office loan troubles have dragged on for years, as today's Debt Markets section shows.

A triple-net lease, where the tenant pays property taxes, insurance and maintenance on top of base rent. In the diesel-squeezed retail story above, a landlord on an NNN lease is shielded from rising operating costs. If a store's tax bill jumps $10,000, the tenant pays it, not the owner.