U.S. CMBS Issuance Hits New High

First-half commercial mortgage-backed securities issuance totaled $88.7 billion in the first half of 2006, excluding agency CMBS and commercial real estate collateralized debt obligations.

First-half commercial mortgage-backed securities issuance totaled $88.7 billion in the first half of 2006, excluding agency CMBS and commercial real estate collateralized debt obligations. Lisa Pendergast, managing director at RBS Greenwich Capital, noted that this is a 21% increase over the same period in 2005.

The CMBS market is seeing more fixed-rate issuance and is benefiting from a higher transaction volume. Indeed, according to Real Capital Analytics, total transaction volume was more than $250 billion in 2005--a jump of more than 35% from the previous year. “While sales in certain sectors moderated some in the first half, they remained sufficient to keep new originations at high levels,” Pendergast said.