MBA: Total Commercial and Multifamily Lending Declined 8 Percent in 2022

by John Nelson

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Commercial real estate and multifamily mortgage borrowing and lending totaled $816 billion in 2022, which is an 8 percent decrease from the record $891 billion set in 2021, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) 2022 Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Finance Annual Origination Volume Summation report. The Washington, D.C.-based organization forecasted a year ago that 2022 commercial real estate and multifamily originations would exceed $1 trillion.

MBA reports that the 2022 volume was the second highest annual total and represents a 33 percent increase from the $614 billion volume in 2020. Jamie Woodwell, MBA’s head of commercial real estate research, says that originations started the year off strong but got sidetracked.

“[Borrowing and lending] dropped off because of rising interest rates, uncertainty about property values and increased questions about the economy and some property fundamentals,” says Woodwell. “A key question for 2023 is when the market will have stabilized enough for the logjam in new deal activity to break.”

Bank lending bucked the trend, increasing by 12 percent to $409 billion. Government-sponsored entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac had the second highest originations volume at $128 billion, followed by life insurance company and pension funds, private label CMBS and investor-driven lenders.

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