All things being equal, the higher the debt yield, the less risky the loan. The debt ratio is a simple ratio that is easy https://personal-accounting.org/ to compute and comprehend. It gives a fast overview of how much debt a firm has in comparison to all of its assets.
If the market inflates values and lenders start competing on amortization periods and interest rates. Loan requests that use these two metrics to measure risk can make it past underwriting—but they will become so much riskier should the market reverse its course. Debt yield lets commercial real estate lenders determine the risk posed by a loan based on how quickly it could recoup its losses in case of borrower default. It is calculated by dividing the annual income generated by a property by the total amount financed. My business partner and I were looking to purchase a retail shopping center in southern California. Ronny found us several commercial properties which met our desired needs.
A high debt ratio indicates that a company is highly leveraged, and may have borrowed more money than it can easily pay back. Investors and accountants use debt ratios to assess the risk that a company is likely to default on its obligations. The debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) is also used by lenders to assess the risk of a loan. To calculate DSCR, divide the net operating income (NOI) of a property by the total amount of debt payments. The debt yield ratio is calculated by dividing a property’s Net Operating Income (NOI) by the total loan amount. Consider a commercial real estate property with an NOI of $1,000,000 and a loan of $10 million.
As discussed earlier, a lower debt ratio signifies that the business is more financially solid and lowers the chance of insolvency. With this information, investors can leverage historical data to make more informed investment decisions on where they think the company’s financial health may go. Higher debt yields equal lower risk, as the property’s net operating income is higher relative to the required loan.
If the net operating income of a commercial property is $900,000 and its total debt service is $791,950, its DSCR at 20 years is 1.14. Let’s say that a bank requires a 1.25 DSCR for loans with a 20-year amortization period. If a proposed loan does not meet this minimum requirement, the amortization period could be increased to 25 years to increase the DSCR. Doing makes the loan a lot riskier—but you wouldn’t know it just by looking at the LTV or DSCR. The DSCR is computed by dividing the net operating income by the annual debt service on a property. At first glance, the total debt service might seem like a static number in this formula, but the DSCR is actually easy to manipulate.
Because the total debt to assets ratio includes more of a company’s liabilities, this number is almost always higher than a company’s long-term debt to assets ratio. For example, if a lender’s required debt yield is 10% and a property’s net operating income is $100,000, then the total loan amount using this approach would be $1,000,000. A company that has a debt ratio of more than 50% is known as a “leveraged” company. Like other investments, the percentage has an inverse relationship to risk. While it’s very easy to calculate, the lender must determine if the result is a worthwhile investment for them, given the property type and market conditions.
The higher the debt ratio, the more leveraged a company is, implying greater financial risk. At the same time, leverage is an important tool that companies use to grow, and many businesses find sustainable uses for debt. Some sources consider the debt ratio to be total liabilities divided by total assets. This reflects a certain ambiguity debt yield ratio between the terms debt and liabilities that depends on the circumstance. The debt-to-equity ratio, for example, is closely related to and more common than the debt ratio, instead, using total liabilities as the numerator. Last, the debt ratio is a constant indicator of a company’s financial standing at a certain moment in time.
That is a standard commercial real estate loan in today’s community bank market (1.15X DSCR and 67% LTV). However, this loan structure is fraught with credit problems for many reasons. For example, if NOI declines 14% (not a severe scenario), the DSCR falls below 1.0X, and LTV (assuming the same cap rate) increases to 80%. If the cap rate increases from 6% to 8% (returning to historical averages), the LTV increases from 67% to 95%. If interest rates rise by 2.00% (a standard interest rate stress test), the DSCR falls to 0.96X. What appears to be a typical and safe bank loan can become a problem credit when subjected to credit stress from just one of the above parameters.
Many national and regional banks incorporate a minimum debt yield ratio as an underwriting criterion. Using this metric will protect lenders better than DSCR and LTV standards in an increasing interest rate environment. This article will analyze how a debt yield ratio can help community banks correctly measure the interplay between cap rates, interest rates, and cash flow. Until the Great Recession, two metrics – loan-to-value (LTV) ratio and debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) predominated the real estate loan landscape. As we shall see, LTV and DSCR are dynamic numbers subject to manipulation to arrive at the desired outcome. Debt yield is a static ratio that doesn’t vary with variables such as interest rate, amortization period or cap rate.
We can see here how debt yield puts a cap on the loan-to-value amount. As this is below the 75% ceiling, the lender might have agreed to this loan had it not also taken the DYR of 9% into account. By requiring a reduced loan amount due to dividend yield requirements, the lender avoids taking on a loan that it would consider too risky.
A debt-to-equity ratio of 1.5 would indicate that the company in question has $1.50 of debt for every $1 of equity. To illustrate, suppose the company had assets of $2 million and liabilities of $1.2 million. Since equity is equal to assets minus liabilities, the company’s equity would be $800,000. Its debt-to-equity ratio would therefore be $1.2 million divided by $800,000, or 1.5.
For example, suppose a short-term loan was originally approved at 5%, but at the end of a 3-year term rates were now up to 7%. As you can see, this could present significant challenges when it comes to refinancing the debt. The debt yield can provide a static measure of risk that is independent of the interest rate. Please notice that the Debt Yield Ratio does not even look at the cap rate used to value the property. It does not consider the interest rate on the commercial lender’s loan, nor does it factor in the amortization of the lender’s loan; e.g., 20 years versus 25 years. The only factor that the Debt Yield Ratio considers is how large of a loan the commercial lender is advancing compared to the property’s NOI.
These three factors are critical inputs into the DSCR and LTV ratios, but are subject to manipulation and volatility. The debt yield on the other hand uses net operating income and total loan amount, which provides a static measure of credit risk, regardless of the market value, amortization period, or interest rate. In this article, we looked at the debt yield calculation, discussed how it compares to the DSCR and the LTV ratios, and finally looked at an example of how the debt yield can provide a relative measure of risk. Another key metric used in traditional commercial real estate loan underwriting is the debt service coverage ratio, or DSCR. This figure is calculated by dividing a property’s NOI by its annual debt service. At first glance, it is easy to assume that the total debt service represents a static figure, but the DSCR is also easily manipulated.