Trepp | Ten-Year Conduit Loans Are No Longer the Market’s Default Setting – Spreads Show Why They Still Matter

In a recent TreppTalk blog, we looked at how five-year conduit loans moved from a niche execution to the dominant format for much of the CMBS conduit market. That shift is easier to see when viewed from the other side of the market: the retreat of the traditional 10-year conduit loan.

For much of the last CMBS cycle, 10-year conduit lending was the standard template. It offered borrowers longer-term fixed-rate financing and gave bond investors a familiar structure around which the conduit market was built. But the post-2022 rate environment changed the calculus. Higher base rates, greater uncertainty around future refinancing conditions, and shifting borrower preferences have pushed the market toward shorter-duration executions. As a result, the 10-year conduit loan has gone from dominant structure to a much smaller share of new conduit issuance. 

The 10-Year Loan Share Has Fallen Sharply

The decline has been dramatic. In 2019, 10-year loans represented 95.6% of conduit loan count and 92.6% of conduit balance. Even in 2022, they still accounted for 91.4% of loan count and 84.6% of balance. At that point, the 10-year structure remained the clear market standard.

That changed quickly. In 2023, the 10-year share fell to 53.7% of loan count and 40.3% of balance. By 2024, it had dropped further to 24.2% of loan count and 26.3% of balance. The 2025 figures were similar, with 10-year loans representing 23.4% of loan count and 26.7% of balance. Through 2026, the decline has continued, with 10-year loans comprising just 12.3% of conduit loan count and 19.4% of conduit balance.

That is a major structural reversal. The product that once defined the conduit market is now being used more selectively, while five-year execution has become the dominant format for many new originations.

Spreads Have Tightened, But Volume Has Not Returned

Interestingly, the spread data does not show a market where 10-year loans are disappearing because pricing has become prohibitively wide. In fact, median 10-year conduit loan spreads widened sharply in 2023, but have tightened meaningfully since then.

Across all property types, the median 10-year conduit spread was 214 basis points in 2019, widened to 251 basis points in 2020, returned to 214 basis points in 2021, and moved to 237 basis points in 2022. The real reset came in 2023, when the median spread jumped to 301 basis points. Since then, spreads have tightened to 246 basis points in 2024, 209 basis points in 2025, and 201 basis points in 2026.

That tightening is important. It suggests that when 10-year loans do make it into conduit pools, the collateral is likely more selectively originated and more tightly screened. The thinner 10-year market may not be a sign of weak execution for every loan; rather, it may reflect a market where only certain borrowers, properties, and loan profiles still fit the longer-duration structure.

Property-Type Pricing Still Shows Clear Risk Separation

The property-type spread data reinforces that point. Looking across 2019 through 2025, every major property type experienced spread widening in 2023, followed by tightening in 2024 and 2025. But the level of widening and the pace of tightening varied meaningfully by sector.

Lodging was the widest major property type in 2023, with a median 10-year spread of 349 basis points. That was up from 291 basis points in 2022 and remained well above the 2019 median of 253 basis points. By 2025, lodging spreads had tightened to 257 basis points, but the sector still carried one of the wider spread profiles in the sample. That is consistent with the operating-intensive nature of hotel collateral and the premium investors typically require for more volatile cash flows.

Office also saw a significant 2023 reset. Median office spreads increased from 227 basis points in 2022 to 320 basis points in 2023, before tightening to 229 basis points in 2024 and 232 basis points in 2025. The tightening shows that some office loans are still clearing the 10-year conduit market, but likely on a highly selective basis. In the current environment, that probably means stronger sponsorship, lower leverage, better leasing profiles, or assets where investors have more confidence in the durability of cash flow.

Multifamily and industrial were not immune to the 2023 widening either. Multifamily moved from 244 basis points in 2022 to 302 basis points in 2023, then tightened to 264 basis points in 2024 and 245 basis points in 2025. Industrial followed a similar path, widening to 301 basis points in 2023 before tightening to 239 basis points in 2024 and 228 basis points in 2025. Retail spreads also widened in 2023, but by 2025 had tightened to 216 basis points, the lowest median among the major property types shown that year.

One caveat is worth noting: the property-type chart stops at 2025. Because so few 10-year conduit loans have been originated in 2026, there were not enough observations to calculate a reliable median spread for every property type. That thin sample is itself part of the story. The 10-year loan has not disappeared, but it has become much less broadly used.

A Smaller, More Selective 10-Year Market 

The main takeaway is that the 10-year conduit loan is no longer the market’s default structure. Its share of conduit lending has fallen sharply since 2022, mirroring the rise of the five-year loan. But the spread data adds nuance. Median 10-year spreads have tightened substantially from the 2023 peak and are now closer to pre-reset levels for the loans that are still getting done.

That combination points to a more selective market, not necessarily a broken one. Borrowers may prefer shorter terms in the current rate environment, and lenders may be more cautious about locking in longer-duration exposure. But for the right collateral, 10-year conduit execution remains available. The difference is that the market now appears to be reserving that structure for a narrower set of loans that can clear investor scrutiny in a more disciplined credit environment.

Compliments of Trepp LLC– a Premium Member of the EACCNY