A new report from the Mortgage Bankers Association has found that commercial real estate mortgage borrowing and lending increased 40 percent to $706 billion in 2025.
The estimate exceeds the $505 billion from 2024, and is a 65 percent increase of the $429 billion level in 2023. According to the MBA’s 2025 Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Finance Annual Origination Volume Summation, the report tracked $606 billion of loans closed by commercial mortgage bankers in 2025, an increase of 48 percent over 2024’s $411 billion. The remaining 100 billion came from smaller and mid-sized depositories, the organization said.
“As capital markets conditions stabilized in 2025, there was a meaningful rebound in commercial real estate lending activity, with originations increasing 40 percent from 2024 and rising sharply from the prior two years,” Reggie Booker, MBA’s Associate Vice President of Commercial Research, said. “The strength in multifamily originations, combined with increased lending from depositories and a return of capital from other lender groups, reflects growing confidence across the commercial real estate finance market. While challenges remain, particularly around refinancing and asset valuations, the significant pickup in activity underscores the market’s ability to adapt to a higher-rate environment.”
Multifamily properties saw the highest volume last year, the report said, with an estimate $413 billion of total lending and $299 billion directly tracked by dedicated mortgage bankers. First liens accounted for 95 percent of the mortgage bankers’ dollar volume closed.