A simple home mortgage is like a fixed recipe: the bank lends a set amount, you pay it back with interest, and the property is the collateral. Commercial real estate is a different kitchen. Here, the loan itself is often changed—sliced, layered, or sweetened with a share of future profits—to match the cash flows and risks of income-producing properties like offices, apartments, and shopping centres. In this chapter, we’ll see how lenders decide whether to make these loans, and how borrowers mix debt and equity-like features to get deals done that a plain mortgage can’t.