There is sometimes confusion over who leases and who lets a property, and what the terms actually mean. Both terms are commonly used in the context of property law.
1. Both the landlord/lessor and the tenant/lessee can lease the property.
If the landlord/lessor leases the property, this means that he rents it out to the tenant/lessee:
“It was agreed that the office be leased to the lessee for a term of 3 years.”
If the tenant/lessee leases the property, this means that he rents it from the landlord/lessor:
“The tenant is leasing the office from the landlord for a term of 3 years.”
2. Only the landlord/lessor can “let” the property, meaning to rent it out to the tenant/lessee:
“The landlord is letting the office to a local company.”
“She has a room to let in her house.”
Care should be taken with the term leasing property. There is a legal difference between leasing commercial property and letting it, these are different types of contracts. Leasing is often assoiciated with sale and lease back, where a company that owns their property wishes to release the capital and sells it to an investor on a leasing contract in order to remain in the property.
A further difference: in commercial property market reports the term letting is used in the UK, where in the US, Canada and Australia the term leasing is used.
Regarding point 2. A property can be sub-let by a tenant to another tenant.
This is still very confusing. I did not understand Alice Jovy’s comment, specially the first part of it.