2020 State of Construction Finance

Each year Rabbet surveys commercial real estate lenders and developers to uncover the latest industry trends in CRE. In 2019’s report, we revealed a huge shift towards automation and uncovered some widely varying opinions between lenders and developers. Spoiler alert, those widely varying opinions continued in 2020. Want to dive right into the data? 

Download the 2020 State of Construction Finance Report 

This year’s report focuses on four key areas:

• Challenges
• Perceptions (Lender vs. Developer)
• Technology
• Trends  

Challenges

As the landscape continues to change for commercial real estate, new challenges surface each year. By understanding the challenges lenders and developers each face, both groups can make adjustments to improve their own processes. This year, lenders and developers alike continued to struggle with technology, efficiency and the exchange of information.

“Over 40% of real estate developers thought their lender’s process was inefficient.”

2020 State of Construction Finance

Perceptions 

An interesting trend we’ve noticed over the years is how widely lender and developer perceptions differ on key issues related to construction finances. For example, over 40% of real estate developers thought their lenders process was inefficient while lenders cited problems with the borrower over 50% of the time.

Technology

We noted how 2019’s report revealed a trend towards automation and this trend has continued. In 2020 lenders and developers said over 50% of their current process could be automated. With the continued push towards automation, new opportunities to leverage technology were prevalent in the survey responses this year. 

Trends

After looking at all the survey responses across lenders and developers, we identified key trends. Shifts in technology, perceptions and security concerns were all prevalent amongst respondents. Remote work has quickly shown lenders and developers the high cost of inefficient manual tasks and that was clear in the data. On the other end of the spectrum however, lenders and developers alike are beginning to struggle with the consolidation of tools. The full report dives deeper into this as well as other trends developing for 2020.

Are you prepared for the rest of 2020 and beyond?

Now that you have a taste of what to expect, grab your copy of the 2020 State of Construction finance report and dive into the insights. Whether you’re a lender, developer or a seasoned CRE professional, staying up to date on the latest industry trends is critical. Arm yourself with data to drive change and achieve new efficiencies in your own organization today. 

Want to talk with someone about your current construction finance process and how technology might be able to help? Contact Rabbet, we’d love to hear from you!