June 2015 Issue

New one-tranche structures avoid punitive CMBS capital charges

Spanish property companies are on a roll. With their prospects brightening by the day and the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing pushing bond rates down, they are tapping the capital markets for cheap debt. Two restructured victims of Spain’s property crash, Inmobiliaria Colonial and Uro Property, plan issues to refinance a total of €2.34bn of bank debt, while one of the country’s new REITs, Lar Espana, has raised €140m for acquisitions.

The UK real estate debt market is polarising into groups seeking lower leverage, and higher loan-to-value borrowers hunting opportunistic returns, according to Laxfield Capital’s Q4-Q1 UK debt barometer. Competition for assets, falling debt costs and rising leverage levels at which lenders are prepared to fund property are combining to split the market into two tiers, according to the data, which logged a pool of 624 loan requests totalling £58.8bn.

Today's alternative sectors are tomorrow's core

Non-bank players take a bigger role as new lending leaps 51%, reports Alex Catalano The UK’s real estate debt market is well into recovery mode. De Montfort University’s latest UK Commercial Property Lending Market report found a much-improved picture, with new lending up 51% in 2014 and new entrants providing a bigger share.

Our panel of real estate lenders debate how long the US commercial real estate market will stay in its ‘sweet spot’ and how to wring out current and future opportunities.  It is as sure as the sun setting that a commercial real estate cycle will end: the question is ‘when,’ not ‘if’. Put three commercial real estate experts in a room […]

Real Estate Capital profiles eight CMBS players competing to make their mark on the industry

As CMBS originators flood into the market, several metrics tracked by data and research firm Trepp suggest that CMBS underwriting standards are slipping – but not as much as they did during the last market peak.

Real Estate Capital market commentary • Blackstone has refinanced two portfolios of logistics assets for its Logicor business, agreeing almost £1bn of new debt.

PERE Research and Analytics’ monitoring shows 74 debt funds in the market this month, seeking a total of $36.7bn. These include Tricadia Capital, which has teamed up with Irish adviser LeBruin to provide €100m of debt for investment acquisitions.

DekaBank has financed two multi-let London offices for long-standing client Stenprop. The German bank has refinanced one of its own loans, secured on Euston House on Eversholt Street, NW1, with the borrower taking advantage of the reduction in margins in the market. The new loan for the 114,000 sq ft building next to Euston Station totals £27.54m.