3 Ways to Refinance a CMBS loan at maturity

Do you have a CMBS loan maturity coming up? There are several different ways that you can refinance to pay back your securitized loan.

Banks

Balance sheet lending is alive and well in 2017, despite the last two years of questions about baseball analogies, and this year’s interest rate hikes. Last year both national and regional banks made strong moves in originating commercial real estate loans, and 2017 is continuing on for the majority of asset types, especially if you have a strong asset and track record.

Private Lenders

If you’re not planning on holding your asset for the long term but need some additional time, or if your property’s financial metrics are not as strong as they once were (looking at you, shopping malls), then a private lender may be in order. Not every private lender is “hard money”, so if you can’t refinance with a bank, there is an entire spectrum of private lenders that can step in for different loan sizes and risk scenarios. Private lenders can do a great job when there is “hair” on your deal, when you need to reposition or buy time to stabilize, or if you simply require more flexible terms than you can get at the bank.

CMBS

Maybe you’re looking at the current investment landscape, and the prospect of selling your current asset to make fresh acquisitions with the capital doesn’t seem as profitable as you once projected. In that case, if you have strong financials, you might consider refinancing your CMBS-backed property with… another CMBS loan. Despite risk retention, rising rates, and the aforementioned “innings” talk, the CMBS market is far from dead, with several book-runners pushing healthy securitizations back out into the bond market.

Try them all

The best way you can evaluate your own refinancing scenario is by trying all of the above, and have the lenders compete to refinance your property.