Originally published on October 23, 2023, by Pamela Jew for NAIOP.
High interest rates combined with persistent inflation have created the toughest commercial real estate financing environment since the Global Financial Crisis. Post-pandemic vacancies in commercial real estate and shifts to digital retail and work have added more considerations for prospective buyers and sellers.
At NAIOP’s CRE.Converge conference this week, experts discussed the current landscape of commercial real estate loans throughout different sectors, such as multifamily, retail and office spaces. Edward Griffin, CEO, Griffin Partners, Inc., moderated a conversation with Keith Honig, senior managing director and head of commercial mortgage Lending, Pacific Life Insurance Company; and Al Pontius, national director, office & industrial division, Marcus & Millichap.
To help illustrate the data, the speakers came equipped with charts to visualize the data from the past few years and the trends across industries and companies.
In recent months, transaction volume across all commercial real estate segments has been very low after coming off some high years volume-wise in 2021 and 2022, Griffin said, motioning to a chart visualizing the drastic decrease from around $650 million in 2022 down to less $200 million in 2023. With this in mind, Griffin asked, how do lenders deal with the current lack of transactions and price discovery?