A company may need access to the cash tied up in a real estate asset to finance business expansion, reduce debt or return capital to shareholders. A sale leaseback arrangement provides a way to do this while allowing the corporation to continue occupying the asset and deducting rent payments as a business expense.

Sale Leaseback Financing Options are an alternative to traditional debt financing, which can have less lenient loan to value (LTV) and debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) requirements. For example, an LTV and DSCR requirement of 80% or higher may prevent the seller-lessor from obtaining financing for a purchase price that is lower than its carrying amount.

Sale Leaseback Financing Options

In a sale and leaseback arrangement, the seller-lessor retains legal title to the asset. However, the transaction may also contain a right-of-use interest in the underlying asset. It is important to evaluate whether this right-of-use is in place and that control has transferred. See RR 8.7 for guidance on this evaluation.

Some sale and leaseback transactions contain a put option for the buyer-lessor to repurchase the asset at a specified future date. These put options must be evaluated to determine if the transfer is a sale, and thus not reportable as a lease. An analysis should include an assessment of whether the buyer-lessor has a significant economic incentive to exercise the put option, and whether the repurchase price is expected to significantly exceed the market value of the asset at the time of repurchase.