CREFC Europe, the European trade association for commercial real estate lenders and debt investors, has launched the sector’s first real estate debt training programme.
The aim is to provide detailed, relevant training to recent hires and mid-level professionals working across the lending and debt investing side of the industry.
While it is aimed principally at real estate debt professionals, CREFC Europe expects that there may also be interest from advisors to the lending and debt investing firms, as the course will help their young professionals gain a better understanding of the sector.
CREFC Europe’s CEO, Peter Cosmetatos, said the trade association is “responding to industry demands for training and education at a time when firms are scrambling to build up their teams in a fiercely competitive lending market”.
The importance of suitable training for commercial real estate lenders was highlighted in A Vision for Real Estate Finance in the UK, the 2014 industry report about how to loosen the dangerous feedback loops between property and credit cycles.
The five-day programme is scheduled for 20-24 July, targeting junior and mid-level professionals at banks and other lending institutions, loan servicers, and other service providers.
The course has a distinguished faculty of speakers from leading market participants and academic institutions, including, BAML, Barclays Corporate, Capita, CBRE, Clifford Chance, Deutsche Bank, JLL, Lloyds Banking Group, TH Real Estate, De Montfort University and Regensburg University.
In addition, there will be hands-on case studies presented by representatives from Radley Associates, Argus Software and Trepp.
The event’s schedule has been coordinated by former DTZ global head of research Hans Vrensen, who was recently appointed consulting director for research and education at CREFC Europe.
Peter Cosmetatos, chief executive of CREFC Europe, said: “With firms busy hiring and parts of the market arguably overheating, this feels like exactly the right time to launch a training programme specifically designed for less experienced commercial real estate lenders.”
Matt Webster, head of real estate finance at HSBC, said: “The Vision report rightly highlighted the specialised nature of commercial real estate lending and the need for lenders and their advisers to see the bigger picture and understand the risks as well as the returns. This is an important initiative from CREFC Europe that can help meet a market need.”
Emma Huepfl, director, Laxfield Capital, said: “People enter CRE lending from many different backgrounds, and the industry needs recognised standards of training for new participants.
“A good CRE lender needs to understand real estate and the economy which drives it, the people that manage it, financial and legal structuring and cycles affecting real estate values and capital flows. There are many different aspects to getting it right, and I hope that the industry will value and support this CREFC initiative to raise standards.”
CoStar Finance 
Cost prohibitive considering its aimed at “young professionals”!
I would expect costs are covered by companies as the programme targets companies not individuals directly