Quarterly lending on commercial real estate dropped by more than a fourth, though office building financing improved and life insurers and retail property originators helped boost overall business from a year ago. But health-care originations evaporated, hotel loan production plummeted and multifamily business was also lower.
First-quarter 2010 commercial production tumbled 26 percent from the fourth-quarter 2009, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported today.
Leading the decline was lending for health care facilities, which sank 91 percent, followed by a nearly three-quarters drop in hotel mortgage volume and a 36 percent tumble in multifamily originations. Industrial property production fell a quarter, and retail property originations eased 11 percent.
But loan originations for office buildings rose 21 percent.
Compared to a year earlier, total commercial mortgage fundings were up 13 percent. Retail property fundings nearly doubled — the best year-over-year improvement of any category. Also higher, 29 percent, were originations for office buildings.
However, year-over-year performance deteriorated by 5 percent for apartment lending, while it was off more than a quarter for industrial properties and by nearly half for hotels. The biggest drop was in health-care originations, which were down more than two-thirds from the first-quarter 2009.
Overall first-quarter activity was 87 percent lower than the peak reached in the second-quarter 2007.
After falling to 1 in the first- and fourth-quarter 2009, the Conduit Origination Volume Index jumped to 5. But it had been as high as 606 in 2007.
A less dramatic 1 percent quarter-over-quarter increase was seen in life insurer originations. But life insurance companies more than doubled fundings compared to a year prior.
Commercial mortgage production at commercial banks was down 48 percent from the fourth quarter and off 4 percent from a year earlier.
First-quarter multifamily originations at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac declined by more than 40 percent from the fourth quarter and by nearly half from the first-quarter 2009.
In the statement, MBA Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Research Jamie Woodwell explained that although changes in volume varied significantly by investor group, it is hard to draw conclusions given seasonal effects.
But one thing is clear, “There appears to be increasing capital available for commercial mortgages.” But Woodwell added, however, that demand is limited.
