Specialist property lender Thinktank has closed its largest commercial mortgage-backed securitisation transaction to date for the amount of $600 million.
The company said the 16 October transaction, its sixth commercial mortgage-backed securitisation, brought the total of bonds issued by Thinktank to $2 billion.
“The support demonstrated by existing and new institutional investors from both on and offshore is indicative of the strong, broad-based demand that has continued to develop for alternate asset-backed issuance,” Thinktank chief executive Jonathan Street said.
SMSF borrowers made up 27 per cent of the pool of 1035 first mortgage loans that backed the transaction. The pool of loans, with an average size of $580,000, was comprised of 27 per cent industrial properties, 16 per cent retail properties, 9 per cent office properties, 3 per cent mixed-use commercial properties and 45 per cent residential properties.
The vast majority of properties (86 per cent) were located in metropolitan areas, with just 14 per cent in non-metropolitan areas. Fifty-three per cent of the properties were in New South Wales, with 28 per cent in Victoria and 11 per cent in Queensland.
The weighted average loan-to-valuation ratio was 66.5 per cent and almost 53 per cent of the loans were to investors, with the remainder to owner-occupiers.
“This transaction has been an excellent result amid challenges in the market and allows Thinktank to continue on its growth path and maintain the orderly supply of credit into the critical small to medium-sized enterprise and self-employed sectors of the economy,” Street added.
In December last year, Thinktank surpassed $2 billion in loan settlements thanks to the continued demand for commercial property finance among investors.
In November, Thinktank director Per Amundsen said the problem of SMSFs being established specifically to invest in property using a limited recourse borrowing arrangement showed signs of abating.
