Survey: CMBS Most Competitive Funding Source

Commercial mortgage-backed securities are rated the most competitive funding source for interest rates and loan proceeds, according to a recent borrower survey commissioned by the Commercial Mortgage Securities Association and the Mortgage Bankers Association.Last year, more than $165 billion in CMBS were issued in the United States. Now the second-largest source of capital funding for the commercial real estate industry, outstanding bond issuance totals $600 billion, the associations said. "While the size of the CMBS industry continues to grow, and the industry scored well in two of the five most important categories surveyed, it is also clear that we need to improve the dialogue between borrowers and the lending community," said Jack Cohen, chairman of the Borrower Survey Task Force and chief executive officer of Cohen Financial. "A preliminary review of the survey findings indicates that borrowers' specific concerns with the CMBS industry were with the inability to modify the loan based on what is best for the real estate and post-closing servicing issues." The survey was administered by the Minneapolis-based research firm, Gantz Wiley. The CMSA can be found online at http://www.cmbs.org, and the MBA can be found at http://www.mortgagebankers.org.