After tracking slightly behind last year’s pace, an active third quarter allowed year-to-date CMBS issuance to exceed last year for the first time. According to Commercial Mortgage Alert, worldwide third-quarter CMBS issuance totaled $71.2 billion, up from $69.0 billion a year earlier. Based solely on U.S. issuance, the third quarter totaled $68.9 billion, up 14% from $60.5 billion for the 2013 period.
At the beginning of the year, market participants projected worldwide CMBS issuance of roughly $100 billion. With roughly $21 billion in deals scheduled for the balance of the year the full-year total could approximate $90 billion, just shy of estimates, but exceeding last year’s $86.1 billion.
“Based on our pipeline, we may see full-year CMBS issuance surpass $90 billion,” commented Michael D. Sneden, Executive Vice President at ValueXpress. “We have over $150 million in transactions scheduled to close between now and the end of the year, and since our full-year volume is expected to be just under $300 million, you can see the fourth quarter is overweight compared with prior quarters. I suspect other originators are experiencing the same effect. However, it’s unclear how much of this volume will make it into CMBS issues before year-end, but those that don’t make it should help produce a great start in 2015.”