Helped by a surge in conduit financing and commercial mortgages originated for life insurance companies, quarterly originations of commercial real estate loans reached their highest level since prior to the financial crisis. Hotel lending had the biggest impact on a linked-quarter basis, while lending for retail properties led the year-over-year growth.
Second-quarter CRE mortgage production climbed 39 percent from the first quarter. It was the highest lending level on record since the fourth-quarter 2007, when commercial mortgage production was 75 percent higher.
Using previously reported data for 2011 originations, second-quarter 2012 volume worked out to around $60.8 billion, increasing from an estimated $43.8 billion three months earlier.
The Mortgage Bankers Association published the data in its Quarterly Survey of Commercial/Multifamily Mortgage Bankers Originations for the second-quarter 2012.
“Low interest rates and continued stabilization and growth in the commercial real estate markets are helping support new loan originations, and every major investor group increased their lending over the quarter,” MBA Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Research Jamie Woodwell said in the report.
Driving the increase from the first quarter were conduit originations, which shot up 309 percent.
CRE lending by life insurance companies grew by 37 percent and made the biggest contribution to the overall increase in commercial mortgage production.
Multifamily lending at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rose 28 percent, and commercial bank production was 9 percent better.
By property type, hotel lending improved by 149 percent, office financing increased more than two thirds and industrial property originations were up by nearly half. Health-care originations were a third more, retail property production was 29 percent greater and multifamily lending expanded 21 percent.
Compared to the second quarter of last year, overall CRE activity was up 25 percent. The estimated dollar volume of commercial mortgage production a year prior was $48.8 billion.
The big gainers from a year earlier were commercial banks, where activity was 58 percent higher, and Fannie and Freddie, where volume grew by half. Conduit originations were up 16 percent, and life insurers pushed business up 10 percent.
By property type, retail property financing grew the most from a year prior: 56 percent. A 22 percent gain was racked up for hotel loan originations.
Multifamily volume was up 19 percent from the year-earlier period, office lending rose 15 percent and health-care fundings increased 11 percent.
But the origination of loans used to finance industrial properties dropped off 5 percent.
