Commercial Real Estate News
$683 Billion of U.S. Commercial and Multifamily Mortgages Originated in 2021
Total Lending Tally Reaches New Record of $890.6 Billion
According to the Mortgage Bankers Association's 2021 Commercial Real Estate and Multifamily Finance Annual Origination Volume Summation, commercial and multifamily mortgage bankers closed $683.2 billion of loans in 2021. The $683.2 billion in commercial and multifamily mortgages closed last year was 55 percent higher than the $441.5 billion reported in 2020.
MBA estimates that total commercial real estate mortgage lending - including activity from smaller and mid-sized depositories not captured in MBA's survey - equaled $890.6 billion in 2021, a 45 percent increase over 2020 ($614 billion), and a 25 percent increase over the previous annual record of $713 billion in 2019.
"Improving property fundamentals and strong price appreciation drove borrowing and lending backed by commercial and multifamily properties to new highs in 2021, with strong activity from every capital source," said Jamie Woodwell, MBA's Vice President of Commercial Real Estate Research. "Lending was 48 percent higher than any previous annual total for industrial properties and 31 percent higher for multifamily properties. Despite bounce-backs from low 2020 volumes, lending for other major property types remained below previous highs."
Multifamily properties saw the highest volume of mortgage bankers' origination volume last year at $376 billion, followed by office buildings, industrial properties, retail, hotel/motel, and health care. First liens accounted for 94 percent of the total dollar volume closed.
Depositories were the leading capital source for mortgage banker originated loans in 2021, responsible for $157 billion of the total. Private label CMBS saw the second-highest volume at $141 billion, followed by government-sponsored enterprises (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac), life insurance companies and pension funds, and investor-driven lenders.
