Monday, February 01, 2010

Commercial Real Estate Lending: Tight Standards and Weak Demand

Today, the Federal Reserve released their latest installment of the Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices showing continued weakness for commercial real estate lending.

The net percentage of domestic respondents tightening standards for commercial real estate loans, representing the supply dynamics of CRE lending, declined slightly to a still elevated level of 27.3.

The net percentage of domestic respondents reporting stronger demand for commercial real estate loans, representing the demand dynamics of CRE lending, increased slightly to a still very weak -27.3.

As the report noted, CRE lending remains weak:

“Banks’ policies on CRE lending were an exception, as large net fractions of respondents further tightened their credit standards during the final quarter of last year. In addition, banks reported that they had tightened terms on CRE loans substantially over the past year…”