A property can clear DSCR comfortably and still fail a lender's debt yield requirement. Trepp's latest maturity data shows exactly why that gap matters right now.

According to Trepp, Inc., The CRE Rundown, roughly 15% of the outstanding commercial mortgage universe comes due this year, and within CMBS specifically, $76.6 billion faces hard maturity, most of it backloaded into the fourth quarter. Many of those loans were originated in 2016, when coupons sat in the 3.5% to 4% range. Loans today generally start at 6% and up.
The payoff data draws a clean line. Loans that refinanced on time in 2024 and 2025 carried debt yields of 13.3% to 14.4%. Loans that struggled were typically below 10%. DSCR wasn't the variable separating those two groups. Debt yield was.

The reason comes down to what each metric actually measures. DSCR is NOI divided by debt service, which makes it a function of the interest rate at origination. Debt yield is NOI divided by loan amount, with no rate in the formula at all. A loan written at a sub-4% coupon could clear DSCR easily while carrying a debt yield well under 10%, because the low rate kept the payment manageable without ever changing how much debt sat against the property's income. That's the trap this cycle is exposing. Debt service resets at refinancing, DSCR deteriorates, and debt yield reveals the leverage that had been there all along.

The threshold also moves by asset class. Multifamily typically clears debt yield requirements in the 8% to 9% range, while special purpose and owner-occupied properties often need 11% to 13% or more, reflecting how much harder those assets are to exit if a deal goes sideways.

I underwrite to both numbers every time. A property passing DSCR is not the same as a property clearing a lender's debt yield bar, and that gap is widest on loans originated when rates were low. The full breakdown, including the asset class comparisons, is on the ACL blog.

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