It’s common knowledge that multi-family remains the strongest of all commercial real estate sectors. But the Mortgage Bankers Association recently released a new report showing just how strong this sector has become.
And the numbers are a bit stunning.
According to the association, 2,653 different multi-family lenders provided a total of $110.1 billion in new mortgages in 2011 for apartment buildings with five or more units.
That dollar volume probably seems high. That’s because it is. The 2011 figure represents an increase of 60 percent from multi-family lending levels in 2010.
Which lenders passed out the most multi-family dollars in 2011? According to the mortgage bankers the list was made up of Wells Fargo Bank, JP Morgan Chase, CBRE Capital Markets, PNC Real Estate and Berkadia.
The hope, of course, is that the positive news in multi-family is a sign that the commercial real estate market as a whole will see a steady rise in deal activity.
“The growth is a testament to the improvements in both the underlying multifamily property markets and the broader capital markets,” said Jamie Woodwell, the mortgage bankers association’s vice president of commercial real estate research.
