Freddie Mac Incentivizes Green Upgrades

Freddie Mac “went back to the lab” after introducing the Green Rebate program, says Peter Giles.

MCLEAN, VA—Building on its Green Rebate program introduced last year for multifamily borrowers that provide Energy Star scores with their loan documents, Freddie Mac on Monday introduced its Freddie Mac Multifamily Green Advantage suite of offerings. Intended to finance resource-efficient improvements to older building stock, the Green Advantage suite is available with most Freddie Mac multifamily loan products.

Under Green Advantage, borrowers can choose either Green Up or Green Up Plus to get better pricing and increase their Freddie loan amounts to finance energy and water efficiency improvements on multifamily properties. The GSE will reimburse all or part of the cost of the energy audit borrowers used to identify cost-saving features and improvements for their approved loan. For better pricing under Green Advantage, buildings must be Green Certified under any of eight industry standard certifications, the best known of which is the US Green Building Council’s LEED program, and include at least one affordable rental unit.