Commercial real estate lending expanded last year, and the growth is expected to continue in 2014. Financial institutions posted some of the strongest gains.
An estimated $92.1 billion in commercial mortgages were originated by all U.S. lenders during the fourth-quarter 2013.
It was the strongest three-month period since at least the fourth-quarter 2007 — when roughly $114 billion was originated.
Business increased 34 percent from an estimated $68.5 billion in CRE loans closed during the third quarter.
Compared to a year earlier, commercial mortgage production rose 16 percent, when an estimated $79.3 billion was funded..
The numbers were determined by using the Origination Volume Index from the Mortgage Bankers Association in conjunction with MBA’s 2014 CRE origination forecast.
The fourth-quarter 2013 index was 223.
For all of last year, volume was approximately $280.4 billion, rising from $244.2 billion previously reported by the trade group.
During 2014, MBA projects that originations will amount to $300 billion,
Loans originated for commercial mortgage-backed securities conduits during the latest quarter were up 35 percent from the previous quarter and rose 15 percent from the fourth-quarter 2012.
At commercial banks, CRE originations jumped 44 percent on a quarter-over-quarter basis and by more than half on a year-over-year basis.
Life insurance companies’ total originations increased 8 percent between the third and fourth quarters and were up 40 percent from the fourth-quarter 2012.
At Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, multifamily production jumped 48 percent from the third quarter but tumbled 43 percent from the final three-month period of 2012.
Looking at apartment loan production from all lenders, business grew 44 percent from the third quarter but was unchanged from the year-earlier period.
The origination of office loans was up 9 percent from three months earlier and 27 percent higher than 12 months earlier.
Lending activity was up more than a third from the third-quarter on retail property loans and 43 percent higher than in the final period of the previous year.
On industrial property loans, mortgage production grew 19 percent but was down 30 percent from the fourth quarter of 2012.
Hotel loan production was up by nearly a quarter but slipped 9 percent from the final period of 2012.
Health care property originations increased 19 percent from the third quarter and leapt 70 percent from the fourth-quarter 2012.
