ATLANTA—Investor strategies may soon change as many predict interest rates and cap rates will rise this year. The question, then, is how that will impact the commercial lending environment in 2015.

Leading commercial real estate lenders see a strong year ahead with ample credit and capital available to meet borrower demand, according to a Commercial Real Estate Finance Council (CREFC) member survey. Survey participants expect loan volume in 2015 to top 2014 levels as loan maturities rise and property fundamentals improve.

Survey respondents expect the US commercial real estate finance market in 2015 to be quite healthy, buoyed by strong investor demand, rising loan maturities, relatively low levels of new construction and improving property fundamentals.

GlobeSt.com asked Jacob Frydman, CEO of United Realty, for his predictions. He told us there will be more capital available for good transactions, but underwriting standards will tighten. 

“In the real estate boom we saw a tremendous and unparalleled surge in CMBS issuances, many of which will come due in 2015 to 2017,” Frydman says. “Investors who got in over their heads during the boom years are going to have a tough time refinancing those obligations under tighter lending standards, and that will create an opportunity for investors who have capital to deploy and know how to extract value from commercial real estate properties.”