What Life Company Lenders Like Now
Mark Ritchie of Gantry on the asset categories these institutional capital sources are favoring this year.
April 12, 2021 | Mark Ritchie | Commercial Property Executive
There is no doubt that 2020 will go down as one of the toughest years for unforeseen economic disruptions on record. However, disciplined commercial real estate lenders, and particularly life companies, were prepared to react, stabilize and get back to business.
Like the banking industry, life companies spent the second quarter of 2020 essentially working on forbearance matters and were able to work with borrowers to come up with short-term solutions in record time. Institutions also had to put money out.
Consequently, more dollars went into the safe asset classes like multifamily and industrial at the expense of office, retail and hospitality. For quality or qualifying assets with strong fundamentals, combined with an accommodative U.S. Treasury, interest rates were pushed down further for the favored asset classes—a very positive outcome for borrowers.
