A version of this article first appeared in the CNBC Property Play newsletter with Diana Olick. Property Play covers new and evolving opportunities for the real estate investor, from individuals to venture capitalists, private equity funds, family offices, institutional investors and large public companies. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox. Commercial real estate is finally flush with cash, seeing record levels of lending activity. That’s the finding of a new credit index provided exclusively to CNBC’s Property Play by JLL, the global commercial real estate services and investment management firm. JLL tracks the number of lenders quoting and the average winning loan-to-value, or LTV, rates going back to 2019. Global credit activity among lenders as well as overall competitiveness of loan terms reached an all-time high in April, driven by both strong refinance demand and large loan placements, JLL found. There was a near-record number of distinct lenders active across all capital sources, from banks to private investors to family offices. As a result, LTV rates are rising. In addition to growing bank appetite, there has been a lot of credit fund activity over the past five years, where investors in private funds, or LPs, have put money into credit vehicles. Government agencies have also been more active in multifamily real estate, and insurance companies are now expanding their real estate exposure. “It’s because those groups can earn a bigger spread by investing in real estate versus something else,” said Lauro Ferroni, JLL’s head of capital markets research for the Americas. “It can be more lucrative for them. That’s No. 1. No. 2 is just that they want to diversify their allocat …
