The debt markets have proven to be more stable in this pandemic-triggered recession than in the Financial Crisis of 2008, but the market is still rocky. At the start of the pandemic, key debt players pulled back, largely eliminating the debt portion of the capital stack, according to a report from Real Capital Analytics. This made asset pricing and capital challenging to secure.

Still, RCA's Jim Costello writes, there is debt available to commercial property investors in this downturn. "Bank lenders in particular are still in the game and, with the pace of acquisitions falling, refinancing activity dominates originations."

Debt availability, though, has clearly scaled back. As it did during the Financial Crisis, CMBS has pulled back from the market, down 95% according to the Mortgage Bankers Originations Index, although the move did not have as substantial of an impact on asset pricing during this recession. Investor-driven lenders, a group that had expanded rapidly during the last business cycle, have also dramatically reduced their market share. While it hasn't decreased activity as sharply as CMBS lenders, their decrease in originations has reduced the availability of high-octane debt, according to the Real Capital Analytics report.