MBA–CREF Special Report: Capital Comeback

February 11, 2026

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Even though lenders are returning to the market, their appetites have changed.

Investors with reliable access to capital are gearing up for an unusually busy 2026, but not all asset classes and debt structures are likely to fare equally in this new investment cycle.

On the second day of the Mortgage Bankers Association’s 2026 Commercial Real Estate Finance Conference, executives from a host of institutional investment firms outlined their adaptations to a steady, yet cautious return of capital to commercial real estate, in addition to some of the challenges they face.

Pain points

Some property and lending-specific difficulties haven’t given institutional investors cause to slow down their activity; rather, they’ve resulted in more of a recalibration of existing strategies. In a general session at the San Diego conference, CNBC Senior Real Estate & Climate Correspondent Diana Olick asked a panel of executives from Nuveen, Digital Realty and BioMed Realty about their biggest areas of “friction” in their respective markets, and answers from panelists ranged from minor inconveniences to generational shifts in how their properties are perceived.

For data centers, the sheer demand for space has caused some lenders to further scrutinize their allocations. “There has been such a tremendous volume of construction financing that (you) are coming out to more concentration limits on certain customer types,” answered Matt Mercier, Digital Realty’s chief financial officer. “It’s broadly open, but you are seeing a discussion with lenders as they hit certain caps with certain names.”

Where Mercier isn’t seeing much friction is in electricity requirements, which are commonly seen as a bottleneck for data center development. “Every four to five years, there is something that comes along that everybody thinks is going to kill data centers, but there is little if any speculative building happening without power,” Mercier said. “The majority of these facilities are already backed by investment-grade customers.”

Conversely, life science’s biggest headwinds have more to do with negative perceptions from investors, who see development as prohibitive while owners grapple with oversupply and weak demand. “It’s been a rocky sector over the last few years from equity and lending perspectives, but we feel like we’re at the end of a new supply cycle,” said Ankit Patel, executive vice president & chief financial officer at BioMed Realty. “The core capital is not there right now, and debt has been part of our business plan because the rates and proceeds were good.”

Turning a corner

Patel believes that life science has turned a corner and performs best when invested in as part of a portfolio of assets located in strong-performing submarkets. “What I’m encouraging our clients to do is invest now and start planting those seeds, whether we harvest them this year, next year or in five,” Patel detailed.

Nuveen’s biggest headache has also been on the financing side, where it seeks to secure debt on a longer-term basis at a time when lenders themselves are increasingly favoring shorter-term financing. “It’s a matter of matching debt to our longer-term contracts, where we typically borrow on a 10-year scale,” said Chad Phillips, Nuveen’s global head of real estate.

The trend is frustrating for the company, which generally has a high threshold for risk in its investments. Consequently, the firm has shifted to favoring some shorter-term holdings, particularly data centers. “Am I going to hold them for 10 years? Probably not, even though it’s a few billion dollars in our portfolio,” Phillips quipped.

Phillips believes that commercial real estate is once again on an upswing, following a two- to three-year correction for most asset classes. “It’s in the growing phase now, and we’re deploying on all sides.”