The PERE Podcast

Rates or Hormuz: Real estate managers are reshaping outlook on heels of central bank guidance

The global real estate market has hinged its outlook of resurgence on maintaining relatively stable financing market conditions, but pressure is building up that may force global central banks to hold off on interest rate relief for longer – in turn forcing more stalls on dealmaking.

Select real estate fund managers in the US were predicting anywhere from two to four interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve in 2026. However, economic pressure stemming from the Iran war is expected to dampen how the Fed, European Central Bank and Bank of England will approach any changes in the coming quarters.

With each central bank converging last week, commercial real estate investment managers received clear signals that any hopes for an industry rebound may need to be delayed, with interest rates holding steady and the possibility of future increases still on the table.

In the US real estate market, the ever-present maturity wall is looming and asset owners and sponsors are finding themselves re-sourcing debt at a significant premium to the days of low to no interest rate pressure. Across the US market, there is an estimated $936 billion of maturing loans due this year – an almost 20 percent jump compared to 2025 according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The commercial mortgage-backed securities market, as an example, has an estimated $76.6 billion of debt due to mature in 2026 with extension options wearing thin.

The road ahead is by no means smooth for institutional real estate investment managers, and global central banks’ next response to macroeconomic pressure could determine if 2026 will truly be the year of the fix as market participants have postulated.

Inside MIPIM: Real estate focal points overshadowed by Iran crisis

PERE podcast host Lucy Scott sits down with Real Estate Capital Europe's editor Daniel Cunningham and PERE EMEA editor Charlotte D’Souza to catch-up on the insights from this year’s MIPIM conference in Cannes.

Join the team as they discuss how the US and Israel war on Iran – which was into its 11th day as delegates arrived for the annual event – was affecting sentiment and hear their thoughts on whether market participants see the crisis as likely to derail real estate’s recovery.

Daniel and Charlotte also provide their feedback on capital flows, gathered from dozens of meetings held with senior managers and lenders over the course of the week. Find out why investors are seeking to commit to commingled funds, showing preference for club deals, joint ventures and separate accounts, and how, on the debt side, lenders are faring as they continue to compete for deals.

Beyond rivalry: How banks and alt lenders are swapping competition for cooperation

This episode is sponsored by Deutsche Pfandbriefbank

In recent years, alternative lenders have satisfied an increasing proportion of the European property market’s financing needs. But banks still account for the lion’s share of activity. In this episode of The PERE Podcast, Duncan Pearson and Charles Balch, managing directors at Deutsche Pfandbriefbank (pbb), explore the new avenues for cooperation between the different classes of lender.

They argue that today, both banks and debt funds are established as essential and complementary elements of the lending ecosystem, with the relationship between them evolving beyond simple rivalry.

Pearson explains the rationale behind pbb’s Originate and Cooperate program, which promotes collaboration between the bank and alternative finance providers. He suggests that the initiative will lead to more sustainable capital structures and lower financing costs for borrower clients, while enabling the bank and its partner lenders to access a wider range of business opportunities.

The lending environment has changed, notes Balch, so banks need to position their balance sheets to meet the needs of the new cycle, serving a wide range of borrowers, who in turn are seeking to make real estate assets fit to meet the rapidly evolving requirements of today’s end users.

The pair conclude that while 2026 is unlikely to be a “soaraway” year, and financing remains expensive for transitional projects, liquidity is beginning to return to European real estate markets, bringing with it improved prospects for transaction activity.

PIMCO Prime's Trausch on seizing real estate credit opportunities in 2026

This week, we bring you extracts from an interview with François Trausch, PIMCO Prime Real Estate's chief executive and chief investment officer.

At the start of 2026, PIMCO Prime Real Estate identified real estate debt markets as one of the most compelling themes for the year, based on the view that as liquidity returns to the market, debt strategies present originators with opportunities that offer a combination of relatively low risk and attractive returns.

In the paper, the company, which has a real estate debt book of €23 billion, forecasted that transaction activity will rise in 2026 – and with it, acquisition financing. It says that while the “wall of maturities” continues to shape the market backdrop, narrowing bid-ask spreads are beginning to unlock dealflow across major asset classes. If this unfolds further, it will mark a significant shift for lenders after several years in which refinancing activity has dominated the landscape.

Listen here as Trausch unpacks these ideas during an interview with Real Estate Capital Europe's editor Daniel Cunningham and explains what returning liquidity means for property credit managers, where opportunities are expanding for non-bank lenders, and how they can position themselves to capitalize. He also shares his longer-term outlook for real estate debt. An article based on this interview can be read in full in the Spring issue of REC Europe.

Starwood’s Pollack: Insurance capital and cloud investments to shape firm's RE growth

This week on The PERE Podcast, focus is turned to Singapore, where a lively docket of PERE Asia keynotes and panels have just concluded. The event saw record attendance across its three days, with some 600 delegates in attendance across the event including institutional investors, managers and advisers. 

PERE has been active in tracking perspectives from leading institutions and firms onsite, including analysis on how Adu Dhabi Investment Authority and Australian Retirement Trust are navigating fund investment activity in 2026.

For this episode, PERE editor Evelyn Lee’s keynote interview with Starwood Capital Group president Jonathan Pollack takes center stage. Pollack is a primary driver of the manager’s overarching strategy and daily business operations, and as PERE reported in a September 2025 cover story, he is also the chosen successor to Starwood founder and chief executive officer Barry Sternlicht. 

Pollack covers a broad range of topics, all spanning from his first year in as the operational overseer for Starwood. The firm is angling to work more closely with insurance capital partners; continue clean-up and related asset management work linked to Starwood’s $7 billion take-private of ESR Group in 2025; and take a more cloud computing-centric tack to its data center investment pipeline. All this is under the backdrop of global geopolitical issues, which are expected to force financial market participants to recalibrate for US policy as military escalations take place in Iran and select neighboring countries.

How back leverage is revolutionizing European real estate debt markets

This episode is sponsored by Knight Frank and Reed Smith

Back leverage has emerged from the shadows to have its moment in the sun. Not long ago, taking on debt to partly fund loans was a practice frowned upon by many European investors and borrowers. But today, it is increasingly used and accepted.

In this special episode of The PERE Podcast, Jess Qureshi, an associate in Knight Frank’s capital advisory team, and Josh Hughes, a partner at law firm Reed Smith, review the use of back leverage in European real estate finance. How does it work? Who is using it and why? And what are the risks and rewards involved?

Jess lays out the results of Knight Frank’s latest research on the space, which reveals how extensive European lenders’ employment of back leverage has become. Meanwhile, Josh analyzes the technicalities of structuring loan-on-loan and repo line arrangements in the most effective manner. The pair emphasize the crucial importance of alignment between alternative lenders and their back leverage providers.

While it involves increased risk, the pair conclude that using back leverage creates more liquidity for borrowers because it enables lenders to originate more loans while juicing the return on capital achievable for investors in real estate credit markets.

No more 'easy trades': REIT take-privates could slow in reshaped market

We return to the familiar territory of real estate investment trust take-private deals this week, as host Randy Plavajka uncovers how private real estate managers aiming to capitalize on listed market dislocations may face a reshaped landscape as REIT market health gradually returns.

Even as take-private efforts are actively launched this week – such as an agreement between Affinius Capital and Vista Hill Partners to take Veris Residential REIT private in a deal valued at $3.4 billion – the outlook ahead for similar opportunities could shift, as some market analysts suggest.

Joining Randy from London are Jonathan Brasse, PEI’s editor-in-chief, real estate, and Sarah Marx, reporter at PERE Deals, who bring in recent commentary and prior-year data on REIT take-private deals to cast more light on the factors set to impact future opportunities in the space. Changes in valuation processes, increasingly available dry powder for listed real estate businesses and updated private-side scaling initiatives are all expected to reconfigure how private managers target take-private deals in the next cycle of the real estate market.

The team is joined by Matthew Norris, head of real estate securities at Gravis, later in the episode. His firm, a regular commentator on REIT capital markets activity, sees more signs of inflection in today’s market, including public-to-public mergers, valuation reconsiderations, and the potential return of steadier initial public offerings throughout REIT categories.

Viva loans Vegas: Blackstone's $3bn re-up for The Cosmopolitan signals high-tier CMBS conviction

The PERE Podcast heads to Las Vegas this week as host McKenna Leavens breaks down one of the splashiest capital markets moves of the year: Blackstone’s planned $3.05 billion CMBS refinancing of The Cosmopolitan. The deal taps into powerful forces shaping today’s credit landscape, from the growing appetite for top-tier hospitality assets to the resilience of destination markets in a post-pandemic environment. 

Joining McKenna in New York are PERE Credit deputy editor Randy Plavajka and PERE Credit senior reporter Shihao Feng, who unpack why this transaction is resonating so strongly in today’s lending market. The team traces the long-running attraction of institutional capital to Las Vegas, dating back in modern markets to the billions in hospitality trades made in 2020 and 2021, and why that conviction is now spilling over onto the debt side. They also explore Blackstone’s deep footprint in the market.  

From the surge in securitized refinancing activity to the growing role of SASB structures and the rise of C-PACE as a flexible capital tool, the episode digs into how Vegas has become a proving ground for refinancing activity heading further into 2026. Later in the episode, listen as founder and managing partner of Brighton Capital Advisors, Michael Cohen, shares how The Cosmo refinancing ranks within today’s CMBS landscape and what it signals for hospitality financing more broadly.