Matt Salem, Joel Traut, Patrick Mattson, Rene Theriault and Lindsey Wright

“Respect every opponent, but fear none,” basketball legend John Wooden once said. 

In 2025’s competitive lending landscape, KKR forged ahead, originating 42 loans totaling $6.4 billion in loan commitments. Further, KKR maintained its crown as one of the largest investors in the junior tranches of CMBS across both conduit B-pieces and SASB, investing more than $3.5 billion in real estate securities as of year end 2025.

Roughly 71 percent of loans originated were to repeat borrowers, the platform’s track record and established reputation just two arrows in its quiver. 

Notable deals included a $564 million whole loan for the refinance of a 994,000-square-foot high-rise office building in Bellevue, Wash.; and a $408 million whole loan for the acquisition of a 55-property infill industrial portfolio located across six business parks in the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., area. In the aftermath of the Liberation Day tariffs announcement in April 2025, when both balance sheet and securitized lenders were sidelined, KKR leaned into the volatility to make a $400 million senior loan for a Raleigh light industrial portfolio. 

As for the aforementioned competition, KKR takes it all in its stride. 

“If I think about the world two years ago or so, there was less competition and less to do. The pipelines were smaller, and we weren’t in that wave of maturities,” Matt Salem said. “Over the course of the last six months to nine months, there’s been more competition, but there’s a lot more to look at [deal-wise], and I would rather be in this environment than the lower volume, less competition one and put our franchise up against the heavier competitive dynamic, because I think we’ve got great relationships and a great franchise to navigate it.” 

With regard to the geopolitical shock and market volatility in the last month or two, Salem said he wouldn’t necessarily categorize the lending environment as any less competitive today, but rather “more conservative,” he said. ”People have their antenna up a little more.” 

In addition to deal activity, KKR has had much to celebrate this year. In February 2025, it closed its KKR Opportunistic Real Estate Credit Fund II, dedicated to opportunistic investments in loans and securities, with $850 million in commitments, currently being deployed. 

Salem views 2026 as a continuation of 2025, in that activity is heavily driven by the maturity wall. While there’s exogenous volatility, “right now, knock on wood, it feels like the markets are still healthy and functioning,” Salem said. “I’m expecting there to be a lot of volume, and a great investing year for everyone. Our lending business is really active, our CMBS business is super active and there’s just a lot of demand for loans right now.I expect that to continue, and we’re excited about what we’re seeing so far.”