In common usage, payment made in return for the right to use property belonging to another.
In classical economics , rent was the income gained from cultivated or improved land after the deduction of all production costs. In modern economic usage, rent is the difference between the total return to a factor of production ( land , labour , capital ) and its supply price , the minimum amount necessary to attain its services. Rent plus opportunity cost make up the total income paid to a productive resource. Efforts made by a resource owner to obtain monopoly profit is considered rent-seeking behaviour.