More commercial real estate (CRE) CDOs look set to take the stage despite the lack of available collateral needed to fuel market growth. The expansion of European CRE CDOs still heavily depends upon the ability of the commercial loan and CMBS markets to source assets. In Europe, CRE CDO issuance has been much more muted when compared to U.S activity, with only two deals pricing over 2006 totaling 935 million ($1.217 billion). "Given the recent performance of the EMEA CMBS market, we expect to see a number of CRE CDO transaction in 2007," said Christian Aufsatz, a vice president at Moody's Investors Service, during the rating agency's EMEA gathering held in London last week. Some market estimates place the combined growth of European and U.S. CMBS at a volume of $350 billion to $370 billion, which is equivalent to a growth of 25% to 30% over 2006 volumes. However, European collateral is lumpy when compared to U.S. collateral.