By INDERIA SAUNDERS, Guardian Business Desk, Inderia@nasguard.com

Bahamians looking to venture into the commercial property sector may find it harder to drum up a mortgage given an increasing number of lenders reining in on that segment of the business.

It's a move directly related to the economy and the growing difficulty landlords face in winning tenants of the paying kind.

"It has to be a strong commercial loan, meaning they have strong tenants, and they can show us where the income is coming from," Eugene Goodman, mortgage administrator at British American told Guardian Business Wednesday. "If it's just a small building where [it's] advertising for tenants we tend to shy away from those.

"The economy has slowed down a bit and we have to take that into consideration."

His comments mirror those of lenders at other mortgage houses and come as the retail sector struggles with a falloff in visitor arrivals to the country and the effect that has had on the income of Bahamians both in and outside of hospitality. Over the last eight months alone, banks across the nation have become a great deal more particular about who they, in fact, lend to. That goes double for commercial mortgage borrowers constructing or purchasing real estate specifically focused on housing businesses. That same drop in visitor arrivals has substantially limited the growth potential for businesses across all sectors and so curtailed expansion plans that may well have mandated a change in venue.

As Goodman explains, it all boils down to the present economic climate in which Bahamians have started pinching their pennies and the influence that has had on the success rate of businesses in the commercial sector. All across town, for-rent signs are cropping up in the windows of stores, even at popular shopping centers. The Mall at Marathon, for example, continues to advertise for a tenant to take over the space Solomon's Mines vacated several months ago.

It is a trend lenders, banks included, appear to have taken note of, moving to limit their commercial mortgage portfolios while attempting to grow home loans — even if using more stringent qualifying terms.

"We haven't shied away from lending loans all together, but I think it's very hard to come get commercial loans from all lenders," said Goodman, adding that commercial loans make up only three percent of British American's total loan portfolio. Out of that percentage, the majority are directed at customers already inside the door with prior loans and accounts with the Bahamian institution, Goodman said.

Still, even at British American the rates extended on loans have gone up by half of a percentage point.

"This is a slow period, but we have to manage it and tighten up on the guidelines," he said.

Unfortunately, those working in the hospitality industry are the ones bearing the brunt of that cutback.

Some lenders have now reverted to earlier calculations of earning power giving less credit for tips. It means those wage-earners will qualify for less.

Given indications the U.S. economy won't, in fact, recover until late 2010, and by extension, neither the number of trips made from that jurisdiction to this, those seeking commercial, and even residential, mortgages may face an uphill battle for some time.

"Hotel workers have always been a challenge in that they work on tips [and] although we've been a little lenient with them in the past, we have to go back to the old drawing board of cutting back tips," Goodman said. "But generally we like young professionals.

"It's just easier."