Cass launches the UK Commercial Real Estate Lending Report

Last night, Dr Nicole Lux, the report's author launched the Cass UK Commercial Real Estate Lending Report at Allen & Overy LLP.

Speaking to a packed auditorium, she reviewed the report’s findings. Following Dr Lux was a panel of industry experts who discussed what the findings meant for their industries and the wider market.

UK commercial property lending steady throughout 2017

The most comprehensive study of the UK’s commercial property lending market shows that a substantial amount of new lending was agreed during the second half of 2017.

New lending in 2017 finished on par with 2016 volumes. Despite the drop in lending activity by 24 per cent year-on-year during the first half of 2017 with £17.6bn of new origination, the second half of 2017 was much busier adding another £26.8bn.

The combined total new origination reached £44.5bn for the whole year, the same as 2016.

In addition, the study recorded a higher than usual amount of £34.5bn of undrawn funding, which has been agreed during 2017 and is largely linked with development funding. Hence, the official amount of committed debt understates the origination figure of £44.5bn.

Other Key findings:

• New loan origination picked-up in second half of 2017 (£26.8bn).
• Increase in agreed development finance (13 per cent year-on-year) and undrawn loan commitments (29.7 per cent year-on-year).
• Alternative lenders (insurance companies and other non-bank lenders provided nearly a quarter of new lending in 2017 (24 per cent).

The Executive Summary and Presentation are available online.