Commercial real estate (CRE) is a tremendously important asset, as the content of this book will discuss. However, the CRE lending and commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) markets are, at the time of writing, largely unrecognisable to the markets that existed on the publication of the first edition of this book, published in 2006. Between the first edition and the second edition, published in 2012, such markets have witnessed seismic structural shifts. Numerous financial institutions with strong histories were consolidated or were nationalised and, through the chaos of the GFC, CRE and the CRE capital markets had a visible presence throughout, with nearly all real estate values across the globe suffering unanticipated catastrophic declines.

Originally published in Sweet & Maxwell - November, 2016.