GSEs and their lenders were active on the multifamily front in 2014

Fannie Mae and 24 lenders that are part of an underwriting and servicing risk-sharing program provided $28.9 billion in financing for 446,000 units of multifamily housing in 2014. Fannie backstopped nearly all of those loans through its mortgage-backed securitization execution.

“It’s not just the volume that’s impressive, it’s the quality of the business,” said Hilary Provinse, Senior Vice President for Multifamily Customer Engagement, Fannie Mae. “We’re taking smart risks and winning the right deals” in what she described as an “incredibly competitive” market.

Fannie Mae’s Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS) program has played a significant role in the multifamily housing market for 27 years. For 2014, Fannie singled out Bethesda, Md.-based commercial real estate finance company Walker & Dunlop, with 22 officers nationwide, as the lender in that program that produced the highest volumes of multifamily housing. Walker & Dunlop was followed by Wells Fargo Multifamily Capital, Berkadia Commercial Mortgage, CBRE Multifamily Capital, and PNC Real Estate.

Capital One Multifamily Finance was the DUS program’s leading producer for affordable multifamily housing. And KeyBank National Association’s lending produced the most seniors multifamily housing.

All told, the two government-sponsored enterprises, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and its lenders provided $57.2 billion to finance the construction of more than 850,000 multifamily housing units.

Freddie’s $28.3 billion in multifamily volume was the second most in its history. CRBE Capital Markets was Freddie’s leading “Program Plus” seller for multifamily financing; Citibank produced the most affordable multifamily housing through this program; Walker & Dunlop the most very low-income units; and CRBE the most seniors housing.

One of the hardest decisions multifamily developers and their design teams have to make is what mix of amenities they’re going to put into each project. A lot of squiggly factors go into that decision: the type of community, the geographic market, local recreation preferences, climate/weather conditions, physical parameters, and of course the budget. The permutations are mind-boggling.

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