It stands for high-volatility commercial real estate (high-volatility CRE); a loan (credit facility) that is extended for financing of the acquisition, development, or construction (ADC) of real estate property. As a subset of acquisition, development and construction (ADC) loans, it used to be associated with high inherent risks (as opposed to normal commercial real estate loans).

Risk-based capital requirements ( Basel III) applied (in 2015) a 150% risk weighting to these loans in order to account for the high risks involved.