IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/srk/srkwps/2026155.html

Commercial real estate debt financing in Europe: evidence from a network analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Skudelny, Frauke
  • Aliman, Mihai
  • Regnér, Martin
  • Sarchi, Cecilia
  • Valetto, Matteo

Abstract

The commercial real estate (CRE) sector is a source of financial stability risk, yet its financing structures remain poorly understood because of complex corporate group structures and data limitations. This paper investigates the financing networks of the 100 largest CRE groups in the euro area, constructing two distinct networks: one for loan financing and one for bond issuance. The loan network exhibits strong regional clustering, a pronounced home bias and a core-periphery structure. Regional differences in loan financing patterns give rise to geographically concentrated communities of CRE entities with similar characteristics. The backbone of the loanmarket shows limited overlap among banks, both in the set of CRE borrowers they serve and in the size and composition of their loan portfolios, pointing to segmented lending relationships. By contrast, the bond network displays greater interconnectedness, is largely free of home bias and allows access to a diversified investor base. Financial stability implications are assessed through the structural properties of the networks and the identification of systemic nodes. In the loan network, regional clustering may amplify cross-border contagion, while highly central CRE groups in both networks could generate spillovers in distress, shaping credit allocation and systemic risk in the euro area. JEL Classification: G21, G28, R31, D85, C63

Suggested Citation

  • Skudelny, Frauke & Aliman, Mihai & Regnér, Martin & Sarchi, Cecilia & Valetto, Matteo, 2026. "Commercial real estate debt financing in Europe: evidence from a network analysis," ESRB Working Paper Series 155, European Systemic Risk Board.
    • Handle: RePEc:srk:srkwps:2026155
    Note: 176751
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.esrb.europa.eu//pub/pdf/wp/esrb.wp155.en.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Luca Marotta & Salvatore Miccichè & Yoshi Fujiwara & Hiroshi Iyetomi & Hideaki Aoyama & Mauro Gallegati & Rosario N Mantegna, 2015. "Bank-Firm Credit Network in Japan: An Analysis of a Bipartite Network," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(5), pages 1-18, May.
    2. Daron Acemoglu & Asuman Ozdaglar & Alireza Tahbaz-Salehi, 2015. "Systemic Risk and Stability in Financial Networks," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(2), pages 564-608, February.
    3. Matthew Elliott & Benjamin Golub & Matthew O. Jackson, 2014. "Financial Networks and Contagion," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(10), pages 3115-3153, October.
    4. Hans Degryse & Grégory Nguyen, 2004. "Interbank exposures: an empirical examination of systemic risk in the Belgian banking system," Working Paper Research 43, National Bank of Belgium.
    5. Claus Puhr & Reinhardt Seliger & Michael Sigmund, 2012. "Contagiousness and Vulnerability in the Austrian Interbank Market," Financial Stability Report, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 24, pages 62-78.
    6. Lux, Thomas, 2016. "A model of the topology of the bank – firm credit network and its role as channel of contagion," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 36-53.
    7. Battiston, Stefano & Delli Gatti, Domenico & Gallegati, Mauro & Greenwald, Bruce & Stiglitz, Joseph E., 2012. "Liaisons dangereuses: Increasing connectivity, risk sharing, and systemic risk," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1121-1141.
    8. Matthew O. Jackson & Agathe Pernoud, 2021. "Systemic Risk in Financial Networks: A Survey," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 13(1), pages 171-202, August.
    9. Daly, Pierce & Ryan, Ellen & Blicke, Oscar Schwartz, 2024. "Mapping the maze: a system-wide analysis of commercial real estate exposures and risks," Macroprudential Bulletin, European Central Bank, vol. 25.
    10. Antonio Cabrales & Piero Gottardi & Fernando Vega-Redondo, 2017. "Risk Sharing and Contagion in Networks," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(9), pages 3086-3127.
    11. Ivan Alves & Jeroen Brinkhoff & Stanislav Georgiev & Jean-Cyprien Héam & Iulia Moldovan & Marco Scotto di Carlo, 2015. "Network analysis of the EU insurance sector," ESRB Occasional Paper Series 07, European Systemic Risk Board.
    12. Andre R. Neveu, 2018. "A survey of network-based analysis and systemic risk measurement," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 13(2), pages 241-281, July.
    13. Craig, Ben & von Peter, Goetz, 2014. "Interbank tiering and money center banks," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 322-347.
    14. Karl Finger & Daniel Fricke & Thomas Lux, 2013. "Network analysis of the e-MID overnight money market: the informational value of different aggregation levels for intrinsic dynamic processes," Computational Management Science, Springer, vol. 10(2), pages 187-211, June.
    15. Cocco, João F. & Gomes, Francisco J. & Martins, Nuno C., 2009. "Lending relationships in the interbank market," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 24-48, January.
    16. Silva, Thiago Christiano & Alexandre, Michel da Silva & Tabak, Benjamin Miranda, 2018. "Bank lending and systemic risk: A financial-real sector network approach with feedback," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 98-118.
    17. Sánchez Serrano, Antonio & Andersen, Isabel, 2024. "A map of the euro area financial system," ESRB Occasional Paper Series 26, European Systemic Risk Board.
    18. Benjamin Golub & Matthew Elliott, 2022. "Networks and Economic Fragility," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 14(1), pages 665-696, August.
    19. repec:ecb:ecbmbu:2024::1 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Sánchez Serrano, Antonio, 2025. "Three extensions of the map of the euro area financial system," ESRB Occasional Paper Series 27, European Systemic Risk Board.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Accominotti, Olivier & Lucena-Piquero, Delio & Ugolini, Stefano, 2023. "Intermediaries’ substitutability and financial network resilience: A hyperstructure approach," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    2. Morteza Alaeddini & Philippe Madiès & Paul J. Reaidy & Julie Dugdale, 2023. "Interbank money market concerns and actors’ strategies—A systematic review of 21st century literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 573-654, April.
    3. Kanno, Masayasu, 2020. "Interconnectedness and systemic risk in the US CDS market," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    4. in 't Veld, Daan & van der Leij, Marco & Hommes, Cars, 2020. "The formation of a core-periphery structure in heterogeneous financial networks," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    5. Jose Arreola Hernandez & Sang Hoon Kang & Ron P. McIver & Seong-Min Yoon, 2021. "Network Interdependence and Optimization of Bank Portfolios from Developed and Emerging Asia Pacific Countries," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 28(4), pages 613-647, December.
    6. Cohen-Cole, Ethan & Patacchini, Eleonora & Zenou, Yves, 2015. "Static and dynamic networks in interbank markets," Network Science, Cambridge University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 98-123, March.
    7. Shi, Qing & Sun, Xiaoqi & Jiang, Yile, 2022. "Concentrated commonalities and systemic risk in China's banking system: A contagion network approach," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    8. Yun, Tae-Sub & Jeong, Deokjong & Park, Sunyoung, 2019. "“Too central to fail” systemic risk measure using PageRank algorithm," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 251-272.
    9. Marco Bardoscia & Paolo Barucca & Stefano Battiston & Fabio Caccioli & Giulio Cimini & Diego Garlaschelli & Fabio Saracco & Tiziano Squartini & Guido Caldarelli, 2021. "The Physics of Financial Networks," Papers 2103.05623, arXiv.org.
    10. Paltalidis, Nikos & Gounopoulos, Dimitrios & Kizys, Renatas & Koutelidakis, Yiannis, 2015. "Transmission channels of systemic risk and contagion in the European financial network," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(S1), pages 36-52.
    11. Brunetti, Celso & Harris, Jeffrey H. & Mankad, Shawn, 2023. "Networks, interconnectedness, and interbank information asymmetry," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    12. Glasserman, Paul & Young, H. Peyton, 2016. "Contagion in financial networks," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 68681, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Linardi, Fernando & Diks, Cees & van der Leij, Marco & Lazier, Iuri, 2020. "Dynamic interbank network analysis using latent space models," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    14. Hüser, Anne-Caroline, 2016. "Too interconnected to fail: A survey of the Interbank Networks literature," SAFE Working Paper Series 91, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE, revised 2016.
    15. EDOARDO GAFFEO & Lucio Gobbi & Massimo Molinari, 2018. "Bilateral netting and systemic liquidity shortages in banking networks," DEM Working Papers 2018/06, Department of Economics and Management.
    16. Temizsoy, Asena & Iori, Giulia & Montes-Rojas, Gabriel, 2017. "Network centrality and funding rates in the e-MID interbank market," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 346-365.
    17. Pawe{l} Smaga & Mateusz Wili'nski & Piotr Ochnicki & Piotr Arendarski & Tomasz Gubiec, 2016. "Can banks default overnight? Modeling endogenous contagion on O/N interbank market," Papers 1603.05142, arXiv.org.
    18. Jose Arreola Hernandez & Sang Hoon Kang & Seong‐Min Yoon, 2022. "Interdependence and portfolio optimisation of bank equity returns from developed and emerging Europe," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(1), pages 678-696, January.
    19. Anufriev, Mikhail & Deghi, Andrea & Panchenko, Valentyn & Pin, Paolo, 2026. "A model of network formation for the overnight interbank market: When is core-periphery an illusion?," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 231(C).
    20. Maryam Farboodi, 2014. "Intermediation and Voluntary Exposure to Counterparty Risk," 2014 Meeting Papers 365, Society for Economic Dynamics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • R31 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Housing Supply and Markets
    • D85 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Network Formation
    • C63 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Computational Techniques

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:srk:srkwps:2026155. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Official Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/esrbede.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.