Blackstone Mortgage Trust has completed a $1 billion commercial real estate collateralized loan obligation offering, adding to a surge of such deals coming to market in 2026 compared to last year's start.
Nonbank lenders have brought seven CRE CLO deals to market this month, totaling $7.3 billion. That is up from five transactions totaling $5.5 billion in the same month last year.
The acceleration in issuance has been fueled by tighter spreads, declining short-term borrowing rates, lower funding costs and expanded lender participation, according to Fitch Ratings. The bond rating firm, along with Moody's Investors Service, rated the Blackstone Mortgage deal.
Securitized CRE CLO offerings are pools of loans originated by a single nonbank lender. This type of debt has increased as traditional banks remain slow to return to commercial real estate lending, analysts have said.
The Blackstone offering, BXMT 2026-FL6, is backed by 19 loans secured by 156 commercial properties across 25 states, primarily in Sun Belt markets.
Blackstone Mortgage "had a robust year of capital deployment in 2025, capturing attractive investments concentrated in multifamily and industrial sectors," Austin Peña, Blackstone Mortgage president, told CoStar News in an email.
The pool is less concentrated than Blackstone Mortgage's 2024 and 2025 Fitch-rated transactions. The top 10 loans in the 2026 deal comprise 59.5% of the pool, down from 70.5% in the 2025 deal. Fitch cited the reduced concentration as a key mitigant to investment risk.
Loan signals residential housing bet
The loan portfolio also pivoted more toward multifamily lending than in the 2025 offering. BXMT 2026-FL6 has 70% apartment exposure, a 16-percentage-point increase from the firm's 2025 transaction, which carried 54% multifamily exposure, according to Fitch. The shift signals Blackstone's strategic bet on residential rental housing.
The largest multifamily loan in the pool — $143 million — backed the acquisition of the Villages at Cupertino in Cupertino, California, a 468-unit multifamily property built in 1964. Blackstone has also committed $38.9 million toward a comprehensive renovation plan.
Industrial exposure also increased in the 2026 offering, more than doubling to 12% from 5.3% in the 2025 deal.
Including industrial outdoor storage loans, which Fitch classifies as an "other" property type, multifamily and industrial properties back more than 90% of the 2026 portfolio. This reflects investor demand and broader market trends in the two sectors. Multifamily properties attracted strong investor interest throughout 2024 and early 2025 as housing shortages persisted.
Blackstone Mortgage Trust, a subsidiary of private equity giant Blackstone, originates and manages senior loans secured by commercial real estate properties. The firm focuses on floating-rate loans in major U.S. markets.
Blackstone Mortgage is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter results on Feb. 11.
Through the first nine months of 2025, Blackstone Mortgage was highly active with new originations and loan purchases, having originated or acquired more than $5 billion in commercial property loans concentrated in multifamily, industrial and diversified bank portfolios.