NEW YORK CITY—After the Barclays Capital scandal shed light on interest rate manipulation by global financial institutions, the impact on commercial real estate has yet to be seen. But given that many construction, short-term and bridge loans are priced over Libor, sources tell Real Estate Forum that it has the potential to add costs to borrowers across the spectrum.

"The manipulation hasn't been large enough to greatly impact the interest in loans that have been based on Libor, but certainly if I were a client with a construction loan or some type of bridge product that was floating over Libor, I'd ask my lender how much additional interest I had to pay because of this Barclays situation," Bill Hughes, SVP and managing director of Marcus & Millichap Capital Corp., tells Forum.

For much of the industry, the initial reports of Libor manipulation by large banks present a strong déjà vu to the economic crisis of 2008, where artificially low rates by major corporations went unquestioned by regulators, in particular, the New York Federal Reserve. Sam Chandan, president and chief economist at Chandan Economics, says that as the scope of the manipulation comes into focus, confidence in major financial institutions is necessarily undercut, opening a window for a more aggressive regulatory stance.