A new poll surveying the opinions of 260 U.S. environmental professionals and mortgage lenders concludes that professionals in those fields believe the commercial real estate market is now feeling the negative affects of the nation’s subprime woes.

The survey, which was conducted by Environmental Data Resources Inc. (EDR) during an online panel discussion for an event titled “The ‘Credit Crunch’ – What It Means for Commercial Real Estate Transactions and Environmental Consultants,” reports that 75-percent of respondents see the subprime crises as having a negative impact on commercial real estate transactions. In addition, nearly half of the survey’s respondents reported “fewer transactions” in commercial real estate, while 28-percent noticed a negative impact on transactions because of all the concerns over subprime.
“Environmental professionals see that subprime lending will continue to affect commercial real estate with more expensive debt, less property flipping, and fewer buyers in the market,” said Dianne Crocker, senior economist and managing director of EDR’s Market Research Group. “Environmental due diligence can be a bellwether of commercial real estate activity, and these numbers show us that our colleagues too are seeing a market slowdown.”