CREFC Miami 2026 Produces Record Attendance, High Hopes for an Active Year

The Commercial Real Estate Finance Council (CREFC) set another record for its annual Miami conference, signaling a strong appetite for commercial real estate transactions in 2026 amid increased competition in the lending space.

The CREFC winter conference held at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel from Jan. 11 through Jan. 14 drew 2,440 registered attendees to best last year’s mark of over 2,300. Many in attendance indicated big tailwinds for CRE debt activity this year with a plethora of new players emerging.

The first two days of CREFC saw cloudy weather and periods of rain, but the gloomy skies over South Beach were certainly not evident of sentiment inside the meeting halls at the Loews. 

“There’s a record attendance here, so that means there’s more capital than ever chasing deals and there’s a lot of competition,” said Glenn Grimaldi, CEO of Naftali Credit Partners. “They have goals and they want to put more money out than they did last year.”

Grimaldi noted that private equity remained very heated in CRE investments, which has helped keep the debt markets afloat the last couple of years as banks pulled back amid spiking interest rates. He added that foreign investors are particularly attracted to the U.S. CRE, with Naftali now raising capital from Asia, the Middle East and Israel for its third debt fund.

Seth Niedermayer, partner at law firm HSF Kramer, said an increasing number of private lenders coupled with regional banks stepping back into CRE balance sheet loans generated plenty of optimism for 2026 as people in the industry seek a competitive edge. 

“They can be competitive based on the rates they can offer and the more straightforward product that they might be able to provide as opposed to a private lender, but there’s so many private lenders and there’s so much money out there looking to be put into real estate,”  Niedermayer said. “If there’s not enough equity opportunities, debt is the place to be, so there’s a lot of competition.” 

Kevin Swartz, executive director at brokerage Avison Young, said lenders are optimistic for a big volume year, but not quite “euphoric” yet due to the possibility of “external factors” that could affect the CRE markets as well as increased competition.

James Nelson, head of U.S. investment sales at Avison Young, added that an expected rise in investment sales should further boost competition among lenders, especially in a New York City buoyed by a robust multifamily market and a rebound in the office sector. 

Nelson noted that investment sales volumes have been steadily rising since they sharply dropped in 2022, when the Federal Reserve began hiking interest rates. The investment sales dollar volume in the top 12 U.S. markets was already 63 percent of 2021 levels by 2021’s third quarter, according to Avison Young research.

Jacob Slone, managing director at Harbor Group International, said lending competition is particularly fierce for well-located multifamily assets with healthy net operating income levels. 

“Spreads for those types of assets probably compressed by as much as 75 to 80 basis points on the lending side,” Slone said. “That means lenders have to be better originators and they’ve got to make sure that the mortgage brokers know who they are, know what their products are, and understand what they can execute on.” 

The CREFC Miami conference kicked off on the heels of the Federal Housing Finance Agency announcing 20 percent increases to multifamily loan-purchase caps for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in another sign of an active lending year ahead. The caps raise Fannie and Freddie’s loan purchase ability to $88 billion for each entity. The multifamily caps had only risen 4 percent from 2024 to 2025 — from $70 billion to $73 billion — for the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs). 

Josh Bodin, senior vice president of capital markets strategy and trading at Berkadia, said a big year for the GSEs bodes well for multifamily lending overall in 2026.

“You look at the overall market size and you look at the market dynamics and you look at the improving fundamentals, it feels like this is a space where multifamily is going to be able to shine and shine brightly,” said Bodin, who co-leads Berkadia’s GSE lending platform.  

Lonnie Hendry, chief product officer at analytics platform Trepp, predicts a big year in the commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) market, driven largely by single-asset, single-borrower (SASB) deals. Trepp is projecting more than $130 billion of issuance this year after 2025 saw $126.6 billion, which was up from $108 billion in 2024.

Hendry noted that $91 billion of the $126.6 billion of CMBS volume last year was via SASB transactions, a trend he expects to continue in 2026. 

“There’s been a huge preferential change in how the market has received SASB deals and, with the higher interest rate environment and with some of the challenges the office sector has seen in particular, SASB deals are where lenders want to be,” said Hendry, noting that SASB has helped financed Class A buildings that are attractive to investors. “They want to be with the best assets, best operators, best tenants and best locations.”

CMBS conduit deals have a far smaller presence now than in the past due largely to increasing product options through debt funds and CRE collateralized loan obligations, according to Jason Berry, chief operating officer at brokerage Slatt Capital. 

Berry noted that very little of Slatt’s $1 billion of volume through 300 deals sourced in 2025 involved conduits, compared to around 15 percent in the early 2010s. He said about a quarter of Slatt’s business was derived through debt funds, with bank balance sheet loans and life companies also taking on larger shares. 

“We’re hardly doing any conduits now because it’s a product type built for a different era, when there weren’t a lot of other alternatives,” Berry said. “Most borrowers have lots of better alternatives unless they are the lender of last resort for certain product types.” 

The CREFC conference began Jan. 11 under a metaphorical storm warning: The U.S. Justice Department had subpoenaed the Federal Reserve as part of a possible criminal  indictment. The move was connected to Senate testimony that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell gave on the renovation of the agency’s offices. Powell spoke that Sunday in a video recording about the Trump administration’s “threats” and “ongoing pressure” against the central bank.

The unprecedented response from Powell, whose term expires May 15, cast doubts on the Fed cutting interest rates at its upcoming Jan. 28 meeting or its ensuing two meetings on March 18 and April 29. The investigation also prompted a strong rebuke from North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican member of the Senate Banking Committee, who said he won’t vote to confirm a Trump nominee as Fed chair while Powell is under threat of indictment. 

While unknowns about Fed policy remain, some increased clarity on long-term interest rates have emerged, with 10-Year Treasury yields expected to remain hovering in the low 4 percent range no matter how many cuts there are.

“Regardless of the range, I think stability is good for the industry,” said Peter Szewczyk, head of CRE East Coast originations at Capital One. “Stability is good in terms of being able to forecast what we can underwrite.”

While there is plenty of optimism for a big lending year, the maturity wall will continue to permeate through 2026, resulting in plenty of distressed loans, according to Bill Sexton, CEO of Trimont. 

“Our special servicing book and our watch lists continue to be very busy,” Sexton said. “There’s certain assets that just won’t make the journey.”

Momentum for CMBS SASB deals is driven in large part by investor demand for value-add investments on properties or asset classes with higher yield opportunities, according to Liza Crawford, head of global securitization at the TCW Group. Crawford noted that asset managers are focused on proactively finding opportunities in the SASB market while also finding new ways to invest.

“As an active asset manager, our clients are paying us fees to be proactive and source high-quality risk into their portfolios targeting a specific return profile,” Crawford said. “The fact that the market has blended so much creates more opportunities to connect with originators and sort out what exposure you want and how you can partner with them on that front, so you have to evolve the market and take advantage of the new opportunities.”

A very active CREFC Miami also included a lively keynote conversation from Scott Galloway, entrepreneur and professor of marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business, who discussed how financial markets may be affected by various consumer behaviors and technology trends like artificial intelligence. 

The party scene pressed ahead despite some wet weather with a number of banks, private lenders, brokerages and law firms hosting receptions in various corners of South Beach. HSF Kramer also hosted its second annual Rao’s luncheon at the Loews hotel with the iconic 

Italian restaurant serving up extra large meatballs — perhaps a fitting metaphor for a 2026 expected to produce plenty of massive deals.

Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com.