Top Takeaways from CREF 2019

PSRS made their way down to the MBA CREF Convention this past week in San Diego, CA and outlined a few takeaways from the conference below:

• In short, most lenders are expanding their programs to include a wider variety of products.
• Bridge products are now available for all variety of lenders who need to get yield and are struggling to differentiate themselves from their competition.
• Life Companies have expanded their appetites into new asset classes and new markets, with several groups adding staff to achieve greater loan volumes.
• Debt funds are plentiful and will struggle to reach allocation goals because of their homogeneous products.
• Construction financing is still a hot topic for everyone. Banks and debt funds have control of that market and are able to get significant yield in that space. Life Cos are highly selective with construction dollars and will generally only offer that to major developers and/or existing borrowers.
• All told, 2019 should see plentiful debt capital with the majority going towards Multifamily assets. Competition will be significant for quality properties and borrowers should see the benefits of this market.