Life insurers had a 107 basis point improvement in the returns on their commercial mortgage loan investments in the second quarter over the first quarter, according to the LifeComps Commercial Mortgage Performance Index.
But on a year-over-year basis, the returns are off by 185 basis points. The second quarter data is the most recent one available.
The second quarter return was 2.79%, compared with 1.72% in the first quarter and 4.64% in the second quarter 2010.
By property type, loans secured by multifamily properties had the best return in the quarter at 311 basis points, up from 161 bps in the first quarter.
Retail properties were next at 269 bps, compared with 145 bps. Next were industrial properties at 265 bps; the 198 bps return in the first quarter was the best among the four property types broken out by LifeComps.
Finally, office properties had a 262 basis point return, versus 170 bps in the first quarter.
The total data includes hotel, mixed use and other commercial properties.
