GP REVIEW · DEBT APPETITE INDEX · DATA AS AT 16 AUGUST 2026
Office has the deepest lender bench in Europe. It also has the second tightest leverage.
Most debt commentary tells you what closed last quarter. This indexes where the money is pointing next. Drawn from the GreenPeak debt intelligence base as at 16 August 2026: 3,130 lender firms, 2,897 of them active, described by 10,968 structured appetite rules across 306 markets and 331 sectors, with 3,972 named coverage contacts and 2,245 market signals captured in the last 120 days, the most recent dated 15 August.
Not survey data. Not last year's league tables. A live read of where lenders say they will deploy.
The quarter in five readings
1 · The 100 million cliff
A 100 million euro project sees 373 lenders. A 10 million euro project sees 98. Among lenders with a defined ticket band, appetite climbs steeply from the small end, plateaus between 100 million and 250 million, then thins above 500 million: 98 lenders at 10 million, 233 at 25 million, 329 at 50 million, 373 at 100 million, 372 at 250 million, 327 at 500 million and 286 at 1 billion.
Read — a sponsor at 10 million euros is not facing a capital shortage in the abstract. They face a bench a quarter as deep as the one a 100 million euro sponsor commands, and thin benches do not compete on price. Size is the first gate a financing passes through, before sector and before pricing.
2 · Office carries the widest bench in the base
Measured by distinct lenders expressing appetite: office 548, logistics 490, hospitality 471, residential 460, renewables 451, transport 387, telecoms 332, mixed use 315, power 250, retail 195. Energy transition now rivals core real estate for breadth, with renewables at 451 sitting within reach of residential. The specialist end stays genuinely thin: offshore wind 174, battery storage 173, hydrogen 118, EV charging 98.
Read — office leading the table sits awkwardly against three years of commentary describing a sector in retreat. The resolution is in the leverage rather than in the sentiment.
3 · The office paradox, resolved by leverage
Stated maximum loan to value, averaged across real estate appetite rules that carry one: retail 55.3 per cent, hospitality 59.3 per cent, office 59.9 per cent, student accommodation 65.0 per cent, logistics 65.8 per cent, residential 70.0 per cent. Put the two tables together and the contradiction dissolves. Capital did not leave office. It repriced the equity cushion it requires to be there.
Read — office debt is available and competitive, at roughly ten points less leverage than residential. Sponsors modelling office at residential gearing are not being declined on the asset. They are being declined on the capital structure.
4 · The depth gap between jurisdictions is wider than assumed
Counted by appetite rules attached to each jurisdiction, the United Kingdom leads with roughly 2,670, followed by the United States at 1,346, Germany at 1,154, France at 798, Spain at 642 and Italy at 599. Below that the drop is steep, with the Netherlands at 395 and Poland at 247.
Read — the same asset, in the same currency, at the same leverage, meets materially different competition depending on jurisdiction. Deep markets compress pricing through competition. Thin ones do not, and no amount of process design substitutes for a bench that is not there.
5 · Pricing spreads, and a constructive signal read
Indicative margins, averaged across rules that state a range: hydrogen 98 to 140 basis points, renewables 118 to 223, power 118 to 236, transport 136 to 208, offshore wind 137 to 194, battery storage 158 to 205, telecoms 182 to 324, biofuels 195 to 334, EV charging 203 to 248. Across 2,245 signals in the last 120 days, positive outnumber negative by more than sixty to one: 1,224 positive, 873 neutral, 19 negative. The largest classified category is deal completion at 610 events.
Read — the spread inside a sector matters more than its floor. Telecoms carries a 142 basis point range between its average low and average high, which is the difference between a well run process and a badly run one on the same asset. These are stated appetites, not executed terms.
THE GREENPEAK TAKE
The debt market is not short of capital. It is short of capital that will look at your size, at your leverage, in your jurisdiction. For most sponsors the binding constraint is not price and not sector sentiment. It is whether the requirement sits inside the band where roughly 370 lenders compete or the one where 98 will glance at it, and whether the capital structure matches what that sector's bench will actually fund. Engineer toward the sweet spot. Size, tranche or aggregate into the 100 million to 250 million range wherever the asset allows. Model the leverage the sector supports rather than the leverage the model needs. Capital is abundant. Being fundable at your ticket is the scarce thing.
What this means for your financing process
Test the requirement against the bench before you test it against a lender. If the ticket sits below the 50 million euro mark, the work is aggregation or tranching, not a better information memorandum. If the asset is office, the work is the equity cushion, not the covenant negotiation. If the jurisdiction sits outside the top six, assume the process carries fewer bidders and price the timetable accordingly. The full sector, jurisdiction and ticket band breakdown sits behind the Brief.
GREENPEAK CAPITAL · DEBT ADVISORY & CAPITAL FORMATION
Know the bench before you run the process.
Lender appetite by asset class, jurisdiction and ticket band, covenant package trends and live mandate context sit behind the Brief. If you are financing, refinancing or raising against a real asset platform this cycle, that is the conversation to have now.
Gated intelligence for real-asset sponsors and fund managers · brief.101globalcapital.com
The Debt Appetite Index is produced by GreenPeak Capital Partners FZCO from the GreenPeak debt intelligence base. Figures reflect structured lender appetite as at 16 August 2026 and describe stated intent, not executed terms or commitments. Averages are computed only across rules carrying the relevant field, so coverage varies by sector. Nothing here is investment, legal or financial advice, or an offer or solicitation to lend or invest. No individual lender, borrower or transaction is identified.