Almost All Of April’s $9B In Maturing CMBS Debt Was Paid Off

Of the $9B worth of CMBS debt that matured in April, 95% has been paid off, resulting in the lowest level of monthly maturing debt in the past year.

Most of these loans were issued in the late stages of the commercial real estate bubble, either in 2006 or 2007, according to data and analytics provider Trepp, which has been closely monitoring the billions worth of CMBS debt that will mature this year. With the current tightening of banks it is unclear whether many of these properties would meet today’s credit standards. 

Roughly $8B in CMBS debt is set to mature in May, and CMBS players hope borrowers’ payoff momentum will continue into this month, Trepp reports. As of April, more than $257.5B worth of CMBS loans have been paid off since January 2015, with $46.1B in CMBS debt set to come due within the next six months. Office and retail loans anchor the largest volume of maturing loans from May through October. Two of the top five loans that will mature in May are New York’s Mayberry House apartments, which has a balance of $107.6M, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, retail center Rockvale Square, which owes $92.4M.  

CMBS Issuances Down In April

CMBS loan issuance was down 34% in the first quarter of the year, and continued to fall in April as lenders adjusted to new risk retention rules. Lenders issued 93 loans that totaled $3.3B in April, a far cry from the $6.3B issued in March. Warehouse, office and retail loans within New York City, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles dominated the month, according to the latest Trepp data.

The end of March marked the first full quarter under the new risk retention rules, which aim to tighten commercial lending standards by requiring issuers to keep 5% of the value of any loan on their balance sheets, rather than selling it entirely in the form of bonds.