In the portion of the bond market that borrowers often use to fund large real estate transactions, sales of securities tied to such assets as hotel portfolios and individual office towers have tripled this year, with $16.7 billion sold, according to Morgan Stanley. That includes $2.8 billion in bonds used to fund GIC’s purchase of IndCor.

Property owners “are taking advantage of sky-high prices on the best assets,” said Lisa Pendergast, a real estate debt analyst at Jefferies LLC.

The jump in large deals coupled with record-setting prices and cheap credit is invoking memories of the period leading up to the financial crisis, marked by mega transactions such as the $8 billion purchase of Extended Stay Hotels by David Lichtenstein’s Lightstone Group in 2007. That deal, funded with more than $7 billion in debt, was followed by a 2009 bankruptcy of the chain. Some investors are concerned that the seeds are being sown for the next downturn, said Costello of Real Capital.

The difference between the bubble-era deals and today’s transactions is that buyers are putting more cash down for their purchases, making it easier to pay their mortgages and harder to walk away should the economy falter, Costello said.

Lending today is more restrained than it was 2007, said Caplan of Blackstone. Also, he said, a relatively low level of construction is helping keep occupancy levels and demand for space high, and commercial-property values are on firm footing.

“There are a lot of interesting things still to do,” Caplan said.

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