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Commercial banks and life insurance companies make inroads while conduit lenders languish.
There is a silver lining for some commercial real estate players in the ongoing credit crunch that has slowed business. With the capital markets in retreat, there is an opportunity for portfolio and agency lenders - including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration - to capture a larger share of the business.
Prudential Mortgage Capital president David Twardock says that life insurance companies are prepared to take advantage of this shift of fortunes. "It's a chance to get some of the best borrowers back in our stable, to earn attractive returns and to rebuild relationships that over a period of time had been hard to retain because of the aggressive capital coming from the securitization world."
The Newark, N.J.-based affiliate of Prudential Insurance Co. ranks No. 12 on NREFs list of top lenders with $14.5 billion in commercial real estate loans made in 2007. For this year, Prudential and Prudential Mortgage together have an allocation of $7.5 billion for portfolio loans. Prudential Mortgage expects to channel another $3 billion...