The Project
The CRE Debt Project is a research initiative of financial institutions, service providers, and Bayes Business School, City University of London, to bring transparency into the commercial real estate debt market in the UK and across Europe.
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The initiative started in 1997 and is expanding every year, capturing also key European markets since 2022.
Data Alliance with lenders
Data is collected from 70 participating lenders in the UK in a standardised data template.
The granular portfolio or loan information broadly includes data fields on:
Data variables:
Total outstanding loan amount, maturity profile
Interest margin, type of interest
Property type & region
Loan-to-value ratio (LTV) & debt-service coverage (DSC)
Defaults & losses
Secondary market trading - syndications
Participating lenders receive the full analysis & results in return for their data submission, and the project welcomes new lenders to join the research at any point in time.
Why should lenders participate?
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Individual reporting, performance comparison, and asset allocation, benchmarking and portfolio analysis tool for lenders’ CRE exposure.
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The collection and analysis of data helps to provide reliable figures for key underwriting metrics such as Probability of Default, Loss Given Default, accounting for both loan cash flows and balance sheet adjustments through marked-to-market values and credit provisions.
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Internal loan mark-to-market model inputs and verification, supporting impairment models and discussions with regulators – independent third-party standard
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What is included
The research project provides timely updates on the UK lending market in a comprehensive report, which is published in April (31st December) and October (30 June) each year. It contains insights into the development of the UK CRE debt market going back to 1997.
The research reports are a key point of reference for all those involved in real estate as borrowers, lenders, lawyers, consultants, or researchers.
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CRE debt market cycle since 1997 and the financial system – tracking, for example, the loan delinquencies and defaults through the last major cycle.
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Total annual CRE lending volumes, active lenders, loan sizes, development finance, and investment finance.
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UK lenders’ loan books across regions and property sectors, highlighting points such as the recent growth in lending on private rented residential schemes.
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A detailed picture of current lending terms for senior, junior, and debt - loan to value ratios, interest rates, and fees – across a range of property types and types of loan.
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Specifically, tracks fixed/variable-rate, fixed-term senior & junior loans that are made by and held in the investment portfolios (“on balance sheet”) of institutional lenders such as life insurance companies, pension funds, and banks
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European initiative since 2022
With many debt funds and insurance companies also lending to real estate investments across Europe, a European CRE debt project started in 2022, including 70 – 100 European-focused lenders.
The European CRE debt report tries to include wider information about sources of European CRE debt, such as:
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European securitisation volumes
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European CRE bond issuance volumes
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Debt structures, back-leverage
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Loan pricing, LTVs
Industry funding
The research project is annually financed by key market advisory and valuation firms, who have been supporting the project since 1997.
Major London law firms active in real estate finance
Financial institutions from the lending community
Other financial service providers
Sponsors and participating lenders receive the full research results in return for their data and financial support. Other market players can obtain the reports and other research outputs and support the project via the webstore
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UK CRE debt report
For discounts, bespoke reports, or how to become a sponsor, please contact nicole@credebteurope.com
About Me
Nicole Lux is the lead author and project director of the Bayes UK CRE lending report, Bayes Business School, City University of London.
She is a seasoned real estate professional with over 25 years of experience in real estate equity investing and debt analysis.
Throughout her career, she has worked in loan origination and distressed asset workout at leading international banks such as Citigroup and Deutsche Bank.