The Top Commercial Real Estate Lenders of 2022 Include CBRE, Berkadia, and Walker and Dunlop
According to the Mortgage Bankers Association, in 2021, $683.2 billion of commercial and multifamily real estate loans were closed in 2021, a 55% increase from the $441.5 billion reported in 2020. However, the Mortgage Bankers Association doesn’t cover all commercial and multifamily lenders, therefore, they estimate that the true origination numbers are much higher, closer to $890.6 billion, a 45% bump from the estimated $614 billion in commercial loans issued in 2020.
With so many loans being originated, it begs the question-- who is originating them? In this article, we attempt to answer that question by listing and profiling the largest commercial and multifamily lenders of 2021, which will likely also be among the largest commercial real estate lenders of 2022.
We have taken our loan origination volume data from Commercial Search’s list of the top commercial mortgage banking and brokerage firms of 2022 while adding in our own research about how these companies operate and what kinds of loans they originate.
Unfortunately, several large lenders, including Bank of America, JLL, and Eastdil Secured did not release their origination data, so it’s unclear exactly where they would rank.
It should be noted that this list also incorporates debt, equity, and hybrid financing, so it may not capture the largest lenders by pure debt issuance volume-- however, it still provides a pretty clear idea of the biggest players in the industry.
CBRE Multifamily Capital: $69.7 Billion
CBRE Multifamily Capital issued $67.9 billion in commercial financing in 2021, a 68% increase from 202, placing it as the number one lender on this list. It financed a variety of property types, including multifamily, industrial, office, hospitality, retail, and healthcare properties. CBRE offers CMBS loans, HUD multifamily loans, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac multifamily loans, and private direct lending options. CBRE is particularly involved in the agency lending space, having been ranked as the second-largest Fannie Mae DUS lender of 2021 and originating around $7 billion of Fannie Mae multifamily loans for that year. CBRE also ranked as the second-largest Freddie Mac multifamily lender of 2021 with $9.2 billion in originations.
In addition to its lending services, CBRE is currently rated as the largest commercial property services and investment company in the world and offers a wide scope of additional services, such as real estate development consulting, leasing and appraisal services, and property and investment management.
CBRE, a member of the Fortune 500, has more than 100,000 employees, and, in 2020, announced revenues of almost $24 billion. CBRE is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and is currently led by CEO Robert Sulentic.
Walker & Dunlop: $42.4 Billion
Walker & Dunlop, Inc. issued $42.4 billion of loans in 2021, a 32.8% increase from 2020, placing it as the second-largest lender on this list. Much like CBRE, Walker & Dunlop offers CMBS loans, HUD multifamily loans, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac multifamily loans, and private direct lending options. It also provides loans for a wide array of property types, including office, retail, healthcare, industrial, hospitality, and multifamily.
Walker & Dunlop is another leader in agency financing, being ranked as the largest Fannie Mae DUS lender of 2021, with $9.6 billion in originations, and the fourth largest Fannie Mae apartment lender, with $6.3 billion in originations. In addition to lending, the firm provides a wide variety of diversified commercial real estate services such as investment management and asset management, investment sales, and appraisal services. It also services a portfolio of $107.2 billion in commercial loans, being the fourth largest servicer of HUD multifamily loans in the U.S.
Walker & Dunlop is a publicly-traded company on the S&P 600 and reported more than $1 billion in revenue for 2021. Walker & Dunlop is currently led by chairman and CEO Willy Walker.
Berkadia Commercial Mortgage: $34.3 Billion
Berkadia Commercial Mortgage issued $34.3 billion in commercial real estate loans in 2021, placing it number three on this list. Berkadia is also a strong agency lender, issuing $7 billion of Fannie Mae apartment loans and $10.5 billion in Freddie Mac apartment loans in 2021, making it the largest Fannie Mae lender for that year. Berkadia also has a strong HUD/FHA multifamily lending practice, being ranked the third-largest HUD multifamily lender of 2021. Berkadia is somewhat unique amongst larger lenders due to its unique specialty in providing financing for niche property types, including affordable housing, student housing, senior living, healthcare properties, and manufactured housing.
It also exscels in small apartment loans, having issued more than $1.1 billion in Freddie Mac SBL and Fannie Mae Small Loans since initiating its small balance lending program in 2019. In addition to commercial and multifamily lending, Berkadia also provides mortgage servicing and investment sales services. Berkadia Commercial Mortgage was formed in 2009 as a 50/50 joint venture between Berkshire Hathaway and Jeffries.
Berkadia Commercial Mortgage has locations around the U.S., but its main office is located in New York City. The company is currently led by CEO Justin Wheeler.
PGIM Real Estate: $23.8 Billion
PGIM Real Estate issued $23.8 billion of commercial and multifamily loans in 2021, a 42.4% increase from the previous year. PGIM offers a wide array of commercial financing solutions, including traditional financing for stabilized properties, mezzanine loans, non-recourse transitional financing, and agricultural loans. PGIM is a HUD, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac multifamily lender, and, in 2021, was the fifth-largest Fannie Mae DUS lender for structured transactions. In general, PGIM specializes in especially large, institutional portfolio loans. For example, in September 2021, the company provided a $482 million Fannie Mae credit facility for a portfolio of six properties located on the west coast of the United States.
In addition to commercial property financing, PGIM makes direct private equity investments in real estate for its clients. The company’s real estate private equity division currently has $84 billion in assets under management spread across over 1,400 properties around the world. PGIM also offers publicly-traded REITs for investors.
PGIM is the global investment management division of the financial services giant Prudential Financial, Inc., and currently has $1.4 trillion of assets under management. PGIM is headquartered in Newark, NJ, and is currently led by CEO David Hunt.
KeyBank Real Estate Capital: $19.9 Billion
KeyBank Real Estate Capital issued $19.9 billion in commercial real estate loans in 2021, a 13% increase over the previous year, making it the fifth-largest CRE lender in America. Like many other lenders on this list, KeyBank is a Fannie, Freddie, and HUD multifamily lender, and ranked as the tenth-largest Fannie Mae DUS lender of 2021 with $3.6 billion in originations. It also originated $3.4 billion in Freddie Mac multifamily loans in 2021, placing seven on their list of top ten lenders.
In addition to lending, KeyBank also provides loan servicing solutions and real estate asset management, as well as operating a commercial loan brokerage practice that focuses on connecting borrowers with life companies and CMBS lenders. KeyBank also specializes in arranging institutional financing for REITs.
In 2021, KeyBank was ranked as the 20th largest bank in the U.S., managing more than $183 billion in assets. KeyBank is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, and is currently led by CEO Chris Gorman.
Cushman & Wakefield: $19.4 Billion
Cushman & Wakefield originated $19.4 billion in commercial property loans in 2021, making it America’s sixth-largest commercial lender. Cushman & Wakefield is one of the U.S.’s largest commercial real estate services firms, providing services including investment management, property leasing, asset management, and sourcing both debt and equity for real estate investments. While it provides CRE services for all property types, the firm also has a unique specialty in providing services for niche real estate sectors, such as data centers, life sciences research centers, self-storage, and other less commonly serviced verticals.
In December 2021, Cushman & Wakefield purchased a $500 million, 40% stake in its competitor Greystone’s FHA and Agency lending and servicing division, making the firm even more influential in the world of real estate finance.
Cushman & Wakefield has approximately 50,000 employees spread across more than 400 offices in 60 countries. The company is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and is currently led by CEO W. Brett White.
Greystone: $16.7 Billion
Greystone originated $16.6 billion in CRE financing in 2021, placing at number seven on this list. Greystone’s commercial property financing practice focuses on CMBS loans, mezzanine financing, bridge loans, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and HUD multifamily financing. The firm originated $3.1 billion in Freddie Mac multifamily loans and 4.3 billion in Fannie Mae DUS loans in 2021, making each agency’s list of top ten lenders for that year.
In addition to lending, Greystone also offers structured finance, and investment sales services. It also currently services more than $84.1 billion of commercial loans. Greystone also indirectly places real estate equity investments via its position as a general partner of the publicly traded real estate investment firm America First Multifamily Investors, L.P. (Nasdaq: ATAX). Greystone’s headquarters are located in New York City and the company is currently led by CEO Stephen Rosenberg.
Arbor Commercial Funding: $13.7 Billion
In 2021, Arbor Commercial Funding originated $13.7 billion of commercial real estate loans, an 82% increase from 2020. Arbor’s main focus is on traditional market-rate multifamily financing, with secondary focuses on financing senior housing, affordable housing, “green” housing, hospitality properties, and single-family rentals. Like most other lenders on this list, Arbor has a strong Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and HUD multifamily lending practice, having originated $3.7 billion in Fannie Mae DUS loans in 2021, and took first place on Fannie Mae's list of small multifamily lenders in 2021.
Arbor is also a HUD Multifamily Accelerated Processing (MAP) lender. Arbor services many of its own loans, with a current servicing portfolio of $8.4 billion. Private label and CMBS loans are among the other financing products Arbor offers.
In addition to direct lending, Arbor also manages Arbor Realty Trust, a publicly-traded mortgage REIT that invests in a wide variety of loans, including higher-risk financial instruments such as discounted mortgage notes, bridge loans, and mezzanine loans. Arbor’s headquarters are located in New York City and the firm is currently led by CEO Ivan Kaufman.
MetLife Investment Management: $12.7 Billion
MetLife Investment Management originated $12.7 billion of commercial property loans in 2021, a 23.8% increase from the previous year, but a substantial decrease from the $15.9 billion of loans it originated in 2019. MetLife manages a combined debt and equity portfolio of more than $110.4 billion, including more than $70 billion of commercial mortgages.
Unlike most other lenders on this list, MetLife does not engage in agency lending, instead, it initially keeps its loans on its books and later sells many of them as fixed-income private securities to clients including insurance companies, pension funds, endowments, and other institutional clients. MetLife generally offers loans in amounts between $15 and $400 million and offers loans for a variety of property types, including multifamily, industrial, retail, hotel, and office properties.
In addition to real estate financing, MetLife also finances private and public companies via public and private debt and bond issuances, as well as providing financing to companies in the agricultural sector. MetLife is headquartered in Hanover, New Jersey, and is led by CEO Steven J. Goulart.
Strategic Alliance Mortgage: $10.6 Billion
Strategic Alliance Mortgage provided $10.6 billion in commercial mortgages in 2021, a 0.5% increase from the previous year. Unlike the other lenders on this list, Strategic Alliance Mortgage, while technically a centralized company, is actually a group of 19 privately owned lending firms. A few of the member companies include Gantry, Essex Financial Group, Colliers International-Boston, and Colliers International-Atlanta. In addition to offering direct lending services, Strategic Alliance Mortgage is also a major loan servicer, and services commercial loans for a wide variety of institutional lenders, including many large banks and life insurance companies. A few of the company’s servicing clients include Bank of America, Barclays, CitiGroup, KeyBank, PNC Bank, J.P. Morgan, TIAA-CREF, Allstate Investments, Aetna, Mutual of Omaha, and Country Life Insurance Company.
Strategic Alliance Mortgage is currently headquartered in Miami, FL, and is currently led by President Michael S. Tanner.
Bellwether Enterprise: $10.5 Billion
Bellwether Enterprise originated $10.5 billion in commercial mortgages in 2021, a 49% increase from 2020, placing it eleventh on our list. The company offers a wide spectrum of commercial lending options to clients, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and HUD multifamily loans, CMBS financing, life company loans, USDA loans, bank, equity, bridge financing, and direct bond purchases. Unlike other companies on this list, Bellwether Enterprise is mainly a brokerage and capital markets services firm, not a direct lender.
In addition to financing market-rate multifamily properties, the company places a strong emphasis on affordable housing financing, as well as manufactured housing, workforce housing, seniors housing, and student housing. Other property types served include industrial, retail, office, and self-storage assets. In addition to mortgage banking, the Bellwether Enterprise also offers investment sales and loan servicing.
Bellwether Enterprise is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, and is currently led by CEO Ned Huffman.
Merchants Capital Corp.: $5.6 Billion
Merchants Capital Corp. originated $5.6 billion of multifamily and commercial loans in 2021, a 46% bump from the previous year. Unlike many other lenders on this list, the company only focuses on multifamily, affordable housing, and seniors housing properties, and does not offer financing for other types of commercial assets, such as retail, office, or hospitality properties. Merchants Capital Corp. is a major HUD/FHA multifamily lender, ranking number six by loan volume and originating $1.65 billion of HUD multifamily loans in 2021.
The firm has a major affordable housing lending practice and is a Federal Housing Administration (FHA) MAP LEAN and LIHTC Pilot Lender, a Freddie Mac Optigo Targeted Affordable Housing (TAH) Seller/Servicer, a Fannie Mae Multifamily Affordable Lender, a Ginnie Mae Issuer/ Servicer, and a USDA multifamily lender. In addition to HUD, agency, and USDA loans, Merchants Capital Corp. also provides balance sheet lending options for properties that may not fit within the framework of its other loan programs.
Merchants Capital Corp. is headquartered in Carmel, Indiana, and is currently led by CEO Michael Dury.
M&T Realty Capital Corp.: $5 Billion
M&T Realty Capital Corp. issued approximately $5 billion in commercial real estate loans in 2021, a 38% increase from 2020, placing it as the thirteenth largest lender on our list. M&T Realty Capital Corp. is a Freddie Mac Optigo Lender, a Fannie Mae DUS lender, as well as a HUD multifamily and healthcare lender. In addition to providing agency and HUD financing, M&T also originates a sizable amount of CMBS loans. M&T Realty Capital Corporation is a wholly-owned subsidiary of M&T Bank, a publicly-traded company in the Fortune 600. In addition to retail banking services, M&T provides private banking, investment management, and commercial lending for businesses and corporations.
M&T Realty Capital Corp. is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland, and is currently led by CEO Michael Edelman.
Gantry: $4.6 Billion
Gantry originated $4.6 billion in commercial property loans in 2021, a 38.8% increase from 2020. Like most other lenders on this list, Gantry is a Fannie Mae multifamily, Freddie Mac multifamily, and HUD multifamily lender. It also arranges loans through life insurance companies. In addition to financing multifamily properties, it also provides capital for a wide array of other property types, including industrial, mixed-use, retail, and office properties.
In addition to commercial real estate lending services, Gantry also engages in loan servicing, generalized debt advisory, CMBS prepayment advisory services, and real estate consulting. It also has an acquisition brokerage and note sales division. Unlike many companies on this list, Gantry mainly functions as a broker and works with a wide array of correspondent lenders.
Gantry is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and is currently led by Senior Director Jeffrey Ballaine.
Gershman Investment Corp: $2.09 Billion
Gershman Investment Corp. originated $2.09 billion of commercial real estate loans in 2021, a 33.1% increase over the previous twelve-month period. Gershman is a Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and HUD multifamily lender. Unlike most lenders on this list, Gershman has a specialty in originating loans for hospitals, which makes it rather unique. In addition to multifamily and healthcare, Gershman also finances office and retail properties. Its home lending division, Gershman Mortgage, provides a variety of mortgage products including VA, FHA, USDA, conventional, and first-time home buyer mortgages.
Gershman Investment Corp. is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, and Denver Colorado, and is currently led by President Bruce Sandweiss.