Commercial real estate loans originated for securitizations saw the biggest year-over-year gain of any CRE investor type. Overall quarter-over-quarter results, though, were down.
Commercial mortgage originations, including multifamily loan production, amounted to an estimated $103 billion during the first three months of this year.
Estimated CRE lending tumbled from $155 billion in the fourth quarter of last year. But the latest activity was slightly better than the $102 billion in estimated production during the first-quarter 2017.
The estimates were based on an analysis of data reported Thursday and previously reported by the Mortgage Bankers Association.
MBA predicts that total CRE lending will reach $519 billion this year. That would be a
2 percent decline from the record set in 2017 — putting last year’s estimated originations at $530 billion.
“Lending terms remain extremely attractive, and we expect another strong year in 2018, although perhaps not quite as strong as 2017,” MBA Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Research Jamie Woodwell said in a recent forecast.
For 2019, MBA expects originations to be around the same as in 2018.
Multifamily loans are expected to make up $257 billion of this year’s CRE activity.
First-quarter hotel lending soared from a year earlier by 54 percent — the most of any property type. Multifamily originations ascended 18 percent, and industrial property production rose 14 percent.
But the origination of loans secured by office buildings dipped 1 percent, while lending on retail properties tumbled 27 percent, and health care activity sank 39 percent.
By lender type, loans originated for commercial mortgage-backed securities and conduits were up 12 percent — the biggest year-over-year gain of any type. Life insurer originations rose 9 percent, and government-sponsored enterprise CRE lending increased 8 percent.
Only commercial banks experienced a decline from a year earlier: 23 percent.
