Commercial finance has emerged over the past couple of months as the strongest sector in the lending market.According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics lending statistics, released on Friday, new commercial finance commitment rose 3.7 per cent in July, compared with the previous month (in seasonally adjusted terms).The strong showing for July followed an 11.8 per cent increase in commercial finance commitments in June and a fall of 5.9 per cent in May.The value of commercial finance commitments in July was A$48.3 billion, up 49.8 per cent from the value of commercial finance commitments in July last year.Finance for the purchase of real property and construction finance rose, while finance for the purchase of plant and equipment and wholesale finance were down.