CRE Lending Market Trends Down in 2018

This year, lending activity was choppy, compared to 2016. At the start of the year, lending activity was slow, and while it picked up at the end of the year, Larry Grantham, co-founder and senior portfolio manager, and Ryan Malatesta, vice president, of Calmwater Capital expect activity to be flat or trend down next year. We sat down with them for an exclusive interview to get their 2018 outlook for commercial real estate lending.

GlobeSt.com: How has the lending activity like in 2017, and what contributed to slow activity at the start of the year?

Larry Grantham: 2017 has proven a little choppier than we originally expected. This year was significantly impacted by everything from the “Trump Effect,” to interest rate anticipation and actual movements, to declining acquisition activity, to increasing lending competition and decreasing deal urgency. 2017 was perhaps also affected by a general anxiety that the market is late in this commercial real estate cycle, which led to some investment concern and caution.