Building on the success of our previous Roundtable focussing on Real Estate Investors, we were delighted to host our second event, this time focussed on Real Estate Lenders. We had the opportunity to glean insights on a wide range of topics ranging from current market conditions to the interplay of development versus investment risk, the role of AI in real estate, and identifying the most promising sector opportunities as we move into 2024 and beyond.

In this short summary version, we present a snapshot of the key takeaways that emerged from the engaging discussions. 

• Interest Rates continue to be by far the most important part of the market mix with a growing acceptance amongst both Lenders and Borrowers that higher rates are here to stay;
• Cashflow is king and a through understanding of gross to net and the resiliency of income is key in underwriting new transactions;
• Development finance, particularly in the brown-to-green space is providing interesting risk adjusted opportunities, often presenting better than Investment Grade opportunities;
• The office sector is extremely challenged, and thin trading is making valuation difficult;
• Retail is benefiting from re-based rents and valuations with yields often high enough to well cover increased interest costs.

To gain a comprehensive understanding of the dynamic Lenders market and benefit from the wisdom shared by our attendees, we invite you to download the full summary.