NEW YORK: Fortress Investment Group says rival lenders are running shy of a US$4.5 trillion market for property loan refinancing over the next three years, putting its commercial real estate credit business on track to achieve a US$5bil milestone for new deals by end-2026.
Spencer Garfield and Noah Shore, global co-heads of the division, said some regional US banks and debt funds hampered by legacy problems had so far shown limited interest in a massive volume of maturing loans in the upper middle-market space, where bricks and mortar values have tumbled as much as 40% versus their peak.
“While there’s a lot of capital out there for real estate credit, I think there’s less competition for the deals,” Shore said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
“We’ve got, depending on how you look at it, somewhere between US$4 trillion and US$4.5 trillion of loans maturing between now and 2028,” he added, estimating the likely demand.
US regional banks, which traditionally dominated the market for loans between US$50mil and US$125mil, now have minimal presence, the executives said.
Deals that once attracted 15 to 20 bidders were now catching between four and five, according to Garfield.
Fortress has been active in commercial real estate debt since 2002.
After expanding its mandate in 2024, the business has achieved rapid growth, with US$1.7bil in new originations that year followed by US$3.4bil in 2025. — Bloomberg
