One Multifamily Construction Finance Alternative

It’s been an interesting time for multifamily. A favored class with industrial not long ago, now the Federal Reserve mentions it with office as one where “prices continue to decline.”

Transactions are down. CBRE says that it’s one of only two areas where there looks to be more room for cap rate expansion. Overall CRE activity has been weak, as the Fed’s latest Beige Book said. For those who have hoped to lock in a lower interest rate after the Federal Open Markets Committee make them, they may be waiting a lot longer than they thought.

Banks have pulled back significantly on CRE loans, including multifamily. Private equity, insurance companies, CMBS, and other sources

There are other sources. “When talking about stabilized assets, we still have Fannie and Freddie,” Don King, executive vice president of Walker & Dunlop, tells GlobeSt.com. “They didn’t reach their caps last year. They’re doing their job of providing that counter-cyclical capital. From a market share standpoint, Fannie and Freddie are doing more of that than anyone else.”

But there are other government-related options. One is Federal Housing Administration loans. Part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, FHA works with lenders to insure loans for more favorable financial terms.

One thing FHA loans aren’t is fast, as the process takes much longer for a stabilized asset. But where FHA-backed loans can be particularly helpful is in meeting the needs of construction.

King notes that banks “have pulled back on the construction side.”

“The larger national banks, they’re still doing construction loans, but they’re super selective,” he says. “They’ve gone from 60%, 65% loan to cost to 50%, and that’s for their good customers.”

Finance companies and private equity are filling the gap. Unfortunately, those rates can be stiff. An FHA construction loan is still in the low 6s. It’s still not fast. The time to process is “somewhere between 9 and 15 months,” says King, depending on whether full plans are already available.

Again, as insured loans, going the FHA route does mean finding a bank that will process it, and that takes some work these days. Last year, Walker & Dunlop did $750 million in loans with local and regional banks.

“There were 38 loans that we did, where we were the mortgage banker,” King says. “Of those 38 loans, there were 34 separate sources. We’re really earning our money, turning over many stones to match capital.”