WASHINGTON, DC—Second-quarter loan originations for commercial and multifamily mortgages rose 29% year-over-year and 16% quarter-over-quarter, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Tuesday. However, data from MBA's quarterly survey show that Q2 saw gainers and losers in terms of dollar volume, both by property type and investor type.

Not surprisingly, the biggest gains in Y-O-Y loan origination by property type were for multifamily, up 58% from the year-ago period, and industrial, up 32%. Conversely, healthcare property loan volume was off 50% from Q2 2014, and down 11% from Q1 of this year, while industrial volume for Q2 saw a 60% decline from the first three months of this year.

On a quarter-over-quarter basis, retail and hotel properties posted the most sizable gains in dollar volume, with mortgage originations up 81% for retail and 46% for lodging. No other property types came close, although multifamily volume for Q2 was 22% higher than for Q1.

By investor type, the GSEs were the standouts on a Y-O-Y basis, with origination volume from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac increasing 113% from the year-ago period. Jamie Woodwell, MBA's VP of commercial real estate research, cites “near-record quarterly levels” for Fannie and Freddie. Moving from Q1 to Q2, though, the GSEs' gains were considerably more modest, with the most recent quarter's volume up just 4% on Q1 levels, due largely to their nearing their loan limits.

More consistent gains were seen in commercial bank lending, up 64% Y-O-Y and 45% from the prior quarter. Life company volume was up 14% from Q2 '14 and 10% from Q1 of this year. CMBS volume was down on both a Y-O-Y and quarter-over-quarter basis, by 17% and 10%, respectively.

Thanks to “increasing property values, improving property fundamentals and still-low interest rates, commercial and multifamily lending and borrowing continued its strong pace in the second quarter," Woodwell sums up. “The rate of year-over-year growth slowed from the first quarter, but year-to-date lending is up for every major lender group.”