Commercial Real Estate is on debt driven assets.

Outlook Foresees Increasing Amount of Distressed CRE Debt Investing

April 14, 2010 by Mark Heschmeyer

While much of the commercial real estate investment focus over the past several months seems to have been geared towards debt, according to a new report from Ernst & Young, even the market for distressed mortgages has been dormant -- but it may now be coming to life.

Only $54.5 billion in commercial mortgage-related transactions were posted last year, compared with $181.6 billion in 2008 and $557.8 billion in 2007, according to E&Y.

"While many on the investor side continue to hope for an active market with an abundance of opportunities akin to the heyday years of the Resolution Trust Corp. (RTC), it's not there yet - but there is hope," E&Y reported in: Is History Repeating Itself? U.S. Distressed Real Estate Loans Investor Survey.

To gauge investors' sentiment through 2010 and beyond, E&Y surveyed market participants in November and December 2009 on their perception of the market.

According to the reports authors Mark Grinis, leader of Ernst & Young's Real Estate Distress Services Group, and Christopher Seyfarth, banks and other lenders weren't selling last year and neither were special servicers; and many investors weren't buying either. However, the dynamics suggests that activity has the potential to pick up in 2010 and 2011.

Today, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) is the most active seller of distressed real estate loans and for good reason. More than 180 federally insured nancial institutions have been closed in the last two years, leaving the FDIC with $30 billion of loans that it must sell, according to E&Y. Many argue that this is just the tip of the iceberg, too.

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