The short answer
A multifamily package is a rent roll, a trailing twelve months, three years of operating statements, a capital plan, the sponsor's financial statement and schedule of real estate owned, and entity documents. Choose the lender type first: a bank or credit union for flexibility with recourse, an agency lender or FHA for long fixed terms with limited recourse, a life company for low-risk properties, a conduit for non-recourse loans with rigid terms.
Start with the lender type
For a small apartment loan the choice is usually between two or three local lenders. For a larger one the first decision is what kind of lender, because that sets the terms more than the choice of institution does. In 2025 HMDA recorded 43,226 HMDA, multifamily loans for $269B HMDA, , made by banks, credit unions and lenders that are neither.
Five kinds of multifamily lender, in general terms
| Lender type | Recourse | Term and rate | Prepayment | What it asks of the sponsor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bank or credit union | Usually a personal guaranty | Shorter terms, often with a rate reset. Kept on the lender’s books | Often a step-down charge or none | A relationship, deposits, and a guarantor the lender knows |
| Agency lender (Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac) | Non-recourse except for carve-outs | Longer fixed terms, sold or securitized | Yield maintenance or defeasance are standard | Experience, net worth and liquidity tests, a single purpose borrower |
| FHA lender (HUD mortgage insurance) | Non-recourse | The longest terms, fully amortizing | Set in the loan documents within HUD’s rules | Patience. HUD reviews the project, and the process is longer |
| Life company | Often non-recourse with carve-outs | Long fixed terms on stable properties | Yield maintenance is common | Low loan to value and a high-quality property |
| Conduit (CMBS) | Non-recourse with carve-outs | Fixed terms, securitized, serviced by a third party | Defeasance or yield maintenance | A single purpose borrower, and acceptance of rigid loan documents |
The table describes how each type generally works. It gives no program numbers, because only two could be checked at a primary source today, and they follow.
Program facts checked at the source on November 11, 2026
| Program | Fact | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Freddie Mac Conventional Small | Loans of $10 million or less, generally $2 million to $10 million. Terms of 5, 7, 10, 12 or 15 years. Maximum amortization 30 years. Minimum amortizing coverage 1.25x. Maximum loan to value 80 percent for amortizing loans with terms of 7 years or more. Non-recourse except for standard carve-out provisions | Freddie Mac term sheet dated 4/26 |
| HUD multifamily mortgage insurance | Maximum term the lesser of any statutory limit, 35 years for existing projects (up to 40 under terms the Commissioner sets), 40 years for proposed construction and substantial rehabilitation, or 75 percent of the remaining economic life | 24 CFR 200.82 |
Fannie Mae’s guide, Freddie Mac’s terms for larger loans, HUD’s coverage and loan to value limits for its Section 223(f) and 221(d)(4) programs, and FHFA’s yearly cap on agency multifamily purchases all exist and all matter. Their current figures were not opened for this guide, so none are printed. Ask an agency or FHA lender for the current term sheet and read the date on it.
What the choice turns on
Recourse. Whether you sign a personal guaranty for the whole loan. Agency, FHA, life company and conduit loans are generally non-recourse, with a carve-out guaranty that makes a sponsor liable for listed acts such as fraud or an unpermitted transfer. Bank and credit union loans usually carry a full guaranty. See guarantor strength and recourse.
Term. How long the rate is fixed and when the loan comes due. A bank may fix a rate for five years on a loan that amortizes over 25. An FHA loan can amortize fully over 35 years.
Prepayment. What it costs to pay the loan off early. Yield maintenance and defeasance protect the investor who bought the loan and can be expensive when rates have fallen. A sponsor who expects to sell in three years should weigh this before the rate.
Assumption. Whether a buyer can take over the loan. Securitized and FHA loans generally allow it with the lender’s consent and a fee. Ask.
Reserves and escrows. Agency, FHA and conduit loans generally require tax and insurance escrows and a replacement reserve. Banks vary.
Speed and certainty. A bank that knows you can move fastest. A loan that needs a government review takes longest. No primary source gives reliable timing, so ask each lender for its own recent experience.
Where the property is in its life. A building still leasing up, or one about to be renovated, does not fit a long fixed-rate loan. It fits a bank, or a debt fund bridge loan, until it is stable. See lease-up.
Looking for a lender now? Find lenders for this in your state or see Multifamily lenders state by state.
The package
Property
- Current rent roll, with unit type, size, lease dates, contract rent, market rent, concessions and any balance owed
- Trailing twelve months of income and expenses, month by month
- Year-end operating statements for the last three years
- The current year’s budget
- Occupancy history by month for at least a year
- Real estate tax bills, and notice of any reassessment or abatement
- Insurance declarations, premium and loss history
- Utility bills for owner-paid utilities
- Capital expenditure history for three years and the plan for the next few
- Standard lease form, and any commercial leases in the building
- Any regulatory agreement, rent restriction or subsidy contract
- Service contracts and the management agreement
- A survey, title policy and prior third-party reports, if you have them
- For a purchase: the contract and the seller’s statements
Sponsor
- An ownership chart from the borrowing entity up to every person with a meaningful share
- Entity documents and certificates of good standing for each entity in the chart
- A financial statement for each guarantor or key principal, signed and dated
- Schedule of real estate owned, with units, ownership share, value, loan, lender, maturity, net income and debt service
- Contingent liabilities: every guaranty outstanding
- Liquidity statements
- A record of apartment properties owned and managed, with unit counts
- The property manager’s qualifications, if it is a third party
Reports the lender orders
An appraisal, an environmental assessment, a property condition assessment, and for some programs a seismic or zoning report. Agency, FHA and conduit lenders set the scope by program, and the cost is the borrower’s. The interagency guidelines for banks set a supervisory loan to value limit of 85 percent for improved property, and a bank’s own limit for apartments will be in its policy.
How lenders size the loan
Every lender type sizes on underwritten net operating income, with a coverage test and a loan to value test. Some add a debt yield test. They differ in the inputs: the vacancy allowance, the management fee, the reserve per unit, and the rate used for the coverage test, which can be higher than the note rate.
Worked example (hypothetical). A 120-unit property has underwritten NOI of $1,300,000 and an appraised value of $20,000,000.
Lender A tests coverage at 1.25 using a 6 percent rate and 30-year amortization. Each $1,000,000 of loan costs about $71,900 a year, so payments of $1,040,000 ($1,300,000 divided by 1.25) support about $14,460,000. Its loan to value limit is 75 percent, or $15,000,000. Coverage binds: $14,460,000.
Lender B tests coverage at 1.20 with the same rate and amortization: payments of $1,083,333 support about $15,060,000. Its loan to value limit is 65 percent, or $13,000,000. Value binds: $13,000,000.
The same property, the same income, and a $1,460,000 difference. The tests and limits here are this example’s assumptions. Ask each lender which test will bind on your deal.
Use the maximum loan calculator and the balloon calculator to see the balance due at maturity.
What the 2025 filings show
| Loan size | Loans | Share | Middle rate | Middle LTV | Refinances |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $1 million | 17,878 | 43% | 7.01% | 66% | 45% |
| $1 million to $2.5 million | 9,900 | 24% | 6.38% | 63% | 51% |
| $2.5 million to $5 million | 4,947 | 12% | 6.17% | 63% | 54% |
| $5 million to $10 million | 3,267 | 8% | 5.97% | 65% | 56% |
| $10 million to $25 million | 2,905 | 7% | 5.75% | 65% | 54% |
| $25 million and over | 2,619 | 6% | 5.45% | 64% | 53% |
HMDA, Five or more units, manufactured-home parks left out. Rate and LTV are as filed under HMDA; a loan that reported none is left out of that median.
The table covers 41,516 of the year’s loans, the rows this site can show by size, so its counts add to less than the full total above.
For loans of $10 million and over, the middle rate was lower than in any smaller band, and loan to value was about the same as everywhere else. 49% HMDA, of multifamily loans were refinancings. These are filed figures for a past year across every lender type. They are not a quote.
HMDA does not say which program a loan was made under, and it does not record recourse or prepayment terms. It does name the lender, so the file shows which lenders made loans of your size in your state.
Finding lenders
Loan Comps lists lenders by loans made near your size. Nonbank names high on that list in the larger bands are often agency and FHA lenders. For banks and credit unions, the multifamily balance in the call report shows who holds these loans, and capital shows who can hold one of your size without a participant. See loan participations.
Want a person to check the public record for an apartment loan? Request financing from The Lender Report’s operator. A person replies by email, usually naming lenders that have made loans like yours. It is free, it covers business and investment property loans only, and nothing is sent to a lender.
What the public record can and cannot tell you
It can: name the lenders that made multifamily loans of a given size in a state and year, with rate, term and loan to value where filed, and show bank and credit union balances.
It cannot: show the program, recourse, prepayment terms, reserves, or how long a loan took. It cannot show what any lender will offer now.
Questions to put to the lender
- Which of your tests binds on this property: coverage, loan to value or debt yield?
- What rate and amortization do you use in the coverage test?
- What exactly is in the carve-out guaranty, and who signs it?
- What does prepayment cost in year three and in year seven?
- Can a buyer assume the loan?
- What reserves and escrows will you collect at closing and each month?
Terms used here
- Multifamily (5+ units): Residential rental property with five or more units. Banks, credit unions and HMDA all draw the line between four units and five.
- Agency lender: A lender authorized to make apartment loans that Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac then buys or backs, under those companies' rules instead of the lender's own.
- DUS (Delegated Underwriting and Servicing): Fannie Mae's multifamily program, in which authorized lenders underwrite, close and service apartment loans under Fannie Mae's guide and keep a share of any loss.
- Optigo: Freddie Mac's name for its multifamily loan products and for the network of lenders it buys those apartment loans from.
- FHA 223(f) loan: A HUD program that provides federal mortgage insurance on a private lender's loan to buy or refinance an existing apartment property of five or more units.
- FHA 221(d)(4) loan: A HUD program that provides federal mortgage insurance on a private lender's loan to build or substantially rehabilitate rental apartments.
- Life company lender: A life insurance company that makes long-term, fixed-rate commercial mortgage loans with its own investment money and usually keeps them.
- CMBS conduit loan: A commercial property loan made to be pooled with other loans and sold to investors as commercial mortgage-backed securities, not kept by the lender that made it.
- Debt fund: A private investment fund that makes or buys loans with money raised from investors, instead of taking deposits the way a bank or credit union does.
- Non-recourse loan: A loan the lender can collect only from the property pledged for it, not from the guarantor personally, except for listed bad acts.
- Carve-out guaranty: A guaranty on a non-recourse loan that makes the guarantor personally liable only if the borrower commits listed acts, such as fraud or a voluntary bankruptcy.
- Yield maintenance: A prepayment charge sized so the lender or investor earns about what it would have earned had the loan run to the end of the yield maintenance period.
- Defeasance: A way to free a property from a loan before maturity by swapping the collateral: the borrower pledges securities that make the remaining payments, and the lien on the property is released.
- Replacement reserves: Money set aside, or an expense assumed by the lender, for periodic replacement of capital items such as roofs, heating and cooling systems and parking lots.
- As-stabilized value: An appraiser's estimate of what a property will be worth on the future date it is projected to reach stabilized occupancy.
- Lease-up: The period after a building is finished or renovated while it fills with tenants and its income climbs toward a stable level.
Sources
Every rule and outside figure above comes from one of these, opened on . Dates are the source's own. Figures from this site's data carry their own source and date beside them.
- Freddie Mac Multifamily, Optigo Conventional Small term sheet (dated 4/26), retrieved .
- 24 CFR 200.82, Maturity (HUD multifamily mortgage insurance, general requirements), retrieved .
- 12 CFR 1003.2 to 1003.4, Regulation C (which multifamily loans are reported and which fields), retrieved .
- 12 CFR part 365, appendix A, Interagency Guidelines for Real Estate Lending Policies, retrieved .
Next step: check the record
- Lenders for multifamilyBanks, credit unions and nonbank lenders by multifamily loans held and made.
- Lenders by multifamily dollarsFrom the 2025 HMDA file. This is where agency and FHA lenders appear.
- Loan Comps for a multifamily refinanceLenders that made loans near this size in a state, with rate and loan to value where filed.
Keep reading
- DSCR calculator: Cash flow over debt service. Type the cash flow and the loan terms, see the ratio and the cushion before it falls to 1.00x.
- Debt yield calculator: Cash flow over the loan. The one ratio that ignores the rate, the amortization and the cap rate.
- Maximum loan calculator: The loan each test allows: DSCR, LTV and debt yield side by side, and which one binds.
- Amortization and balloon calculator: Payment, balance at maturity and interest paid, for a loan that amortizes over longer than it runs.
- Deal summary builder: Turn the facts of a deal into a clean one-page summary you can copy or print. Nothing is saved or sent.
- Small balance multifamily loan checklist: Most apartment loans are small. Local banks, credit unions and the agencies' small loan programs all compete for them, and each wants the same core package with a different emphasis.
- How to read HMDA data for multifamily and investor loans: HMDA is the one public file that lists individual apartment and rental-house loans by lender, amount, county and year. It covers loans on dwellings only, and not every lender reports.
- How bankers evaluate a commercial loan deal: A credit officer asks one question five ways: how will this loan be repaid, and what happens if it is not? Knowing the five tests lets you size a request before you send it.
- Guarantor strength and recourse, explained: A guaranty is the lender's second way out. Whether you sign one, how much it covers and what the lender checks before accepting it shape a commercial loan as much as the rate does.
- Construction loan package checklist: A construction lender is lending against a building that does not exist yet. The package has to show what it will cost, who will build it, where every dollar comes from, and how the loan gets repaid when it is done.
- What a lender-ready loan package looks like: A lender decides in minutes whether to keep reading. A package that answers the first five questions on one page, and backs each answer with a document, gets read.
- Loan participations, explained: A participation lets one lender make a loan that is too large for it to hold alone. The borrower signs with one lender. Behind that lender, others own pieces of the loan and share its risk.
Questions people ask
What is an agency lender?
A lender that Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac has chosen to originate multifamily loans for sale to it. A borrower cannot go to either agency directly. The loan is made by the lender under the agency's guide and is then sold or securitized.
How long can an FHA multifamily loan run?
Under 24 CFR 200.82 the term may not exceed the lesser of any statutory limit, 35 years for existing projects (up to 40 years under terms the Commissioner sets), 40 years for proposed construction and substantial rehabilitation, or 75 percent of the remaining economic life of the improvements.
Why are agency and FHA lenders in HMDA when my bank's office loans are not?
HMDA covers loans secured by dwellings, and an apartment building is a dwelling. Any lender that meets the rule's tests reports its multifamily loans, including lenders that are not banks.
Cite this
Source: The Lender Report, Multifamily loan checklist for 5+ unit properties, https://lender.report/guides/package-checklist-multifamily-5-plus/, data as of November 11, 2026.
General information, not legal, tax or credit advice. A lender's own policy decides what it will do; ask it for the policy in writing.
Source and date appear beside each figure. Banks report balances, not loans made. Loans made come only from HMDA and SBA files. We do not audit filings and can make errors joining them. Report a problem