Lenders close $133B in multifamily housing loans

According to the report, 2,670 multifamily lenders closed 49,727 loans, with an average loan size of $2.7 million, for apartment buildings that have at least five units.

The American Housing Survey says that in 2005, 16 percent of American households live in rented space in buildings with five or more units.

The report is the first of its kind for MBA, and it is designed to be completed annually. Jamie Woodwell, MBA’s senior director of commercial/multifamily research, said that the findings of the report illustrate that the multifamily market is broad and deep, but segmented by size.

“For example, the top seven lenders each made more than 1,000 multifamily loans in 2005, while 716 lenders – 27 percent of all active multifamily lenders – made just one multifamily loan during the year,” Woodwell said.

On a dollar basis, Wachovia was the largest multifamily lender in 2005, followed by Capmark and Washington Mutual. Washington Mutual closed the largest number of loans, followed by Capmark and Citigroup.

The average loan size of $2.7 million belies significant market segmentation.

Among 2,216 very small-loan lenders, the average multifamily loan size was just $500,000, compared to a $14.6 million average loan size among the 31 large-loan lenders. The numbers imply a national market for loans with larger balances and a more local market for smaller-balance multifamily loans.

The report includes a description of the multifamily market and lenders within it; information on the very-small loan market (loans of $1 million or less); tables listing all 2,670 multifamily lenders in 2005, their loan volumes and average loan sizes; and the volume of very small loans made in individual metropolitan statistical areas.

The report is based on data combined from the MBA 2005 Commercial Real Estate/Multifamily Finance: Annual Origination Volume Summation and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act.