Single Net vs. Double Net vs. Triple Net: What N, NN, and NNN Actually Mean

The Ns in a lease quote count how many expense categories move from the landlord to the tenant. One N is property taxes. Two Ns add building insurance. Three Ns add maintenance. A listing that says "$14/SF NN" and one that says "$12/SF NNN" are describing different risk allocations, not just different prices — and the label on the lease is a shorthand, not a guarantee of what the expense provisions actually say.

This is an observational explainer of the net lease spectrum — single net, double net, triple net, and absolute net — and where the labels stop matching the documents. It is general information, not advice about your lease. The legal judgment about what to do with what you find is yours.

The spectrum at a glance

Each step to the right shifts cost and cost variability from the landlord to the tenant, and base rent typically steps down to compensate. The trade is predictability for a lower headline number.

Single net (N): taxes pass through

In a single net lease the tenant pays base rent plus its share of property taxes; the landlord keeps insurance and maintenance. The tenant's exposure is narrow but not trivial — property taxes are the largest of the three nets in many markets, and a reassessment after the building sells can move the number sharply between one year and the next. Single net structures are the least common of the three in current retail and industrial listings.

Double net (NN): taxes plus insurance

A double net lease passes through property taxes and building insurance, while the landlord retains maintenance — typically including the parking lot, common areas, roof, and structure. NN structures show up in some industrial and single-tenant properties. The tenant's variable exposure widens to two categories, but the maintenance line — the one that produces most of the year-end reconciliation disputes in triple net leases — stays with the landlord.

A "lease type NN" quote is worth reading closely for one reason: NN is the label most often applied loosely. Some listings use it for what is functionally a triple net lease with a short exclusion list. The expense provisions, not the abbreviation, decide which one it is.

Triple net (NNN): taxes, insurance, and CAM

The triple net lease adds the third N: common area maintenance. The tenant pays base rent plus its proportionate share of all three categories, billed as estimated monthly charges and trued up in a year-end reconciliation. What sits inside each net — and what the landlord still pays — is covered in detail in our three nets explainer and NNN charges breakdown.

One point that surprises people coming from the label alone: in a standard NNN lease the landlord commonly still carries the roof, the structural elements, and often capital replacements. "Triple net" does not mean "the tenant pays everything" — that structure has its own name.

Absolute net: the tenant carries everything

An absolute net lease (sometimes "bondable" or "hell-or-high-water" in single-tenant investment sales) transfers every property cost to the tenant — taxes, insurance, all maintenance, and the roof, structure, and capital replacements a standard NNN lease commonly leaves with the landlord. Some versions require rent to continue even after a casualty or condemnation.

This is the answer to "absolute net vs. NNN": the two differ at the structural and capital layer. A lease marketed as NNN that also passes through roof replacement and structural repairs is behaving like an absolute net lease, whatever the listing called it.

Why the label is not the lease

• The definitions control. The N-count is marketing shorthand. What the tenant actually pays is set by the operating expense and repair provisions — the inclusion list, the exclusion list, and who owns roof, structure, and capital items.
• Hybrids are everywhere. Modified gross, industrial gross, and NN-with-CAM-cap structures sit between the columns in the table above. Two leases with the same label can allocate costs very differently.
• Base rent adjusts, risk does not disappear. A landlord quoting the same space as N, NN, or NNN will typically price the base rent to reflect who carries the expenses. What changes across the spectrum is less the year-one total than who absorbs the surprises — the reassessment, the premium spike, the parking lot resurfacing.

Leases whose expense labels and expense provisions point in different directions are commonly reviewed line by line before signature, because the reconciliation math follows the provisions, not the listing. How that math plays out over a full term is worked through in our triple net lease math walkthrough.

Related: commercial lease analysis · NNN vs. gross lease · NNN charges: who pays what.