Multifamily Lending Hits $110 Billion in 2011, 60 Percent Spike Over 2010 Totals

In 2011, 2,653 different multifamily lenders provided a total of $110.1 billion in new mortgages for apartment buildings with five or more units, according to a report from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). The 2011 dollar volume represents a 60 percent increase from 2010 levels. Seventy-two percent of the active lenders made five or fewer multifamily loans over the course of the year. The top five multifamily lenders in 2011, measured by total dollar volume, were Wells Fargo Bank NA, JP Morgan Chase, CBRE Capital Markets Inc., PNC Real Estate, and Berkadia. “The $110 billion of borrowing and lending backed by multifamily apartment buildings in 2011 was more than double the amount of just two years earlier,” said Jamie Woodwell, MBA’s vice president of commercial real estate research. “The growth is a testament to the improvements in both the underlying multifamily property markets and the broader capital markets.” The report is based on data from the MBA 2011 Commercial Multifamily Annual Origination Volume Summation and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). The MBA survey targets specialized commercial/multifamily originators and covered $184 billion in commercial/multifamily loans in 2011. The HMDA data adds multifamily loans from banks, thrifts and other institutions that meet certain single-family origination thresholds. When combined, the two datasets provide the most comprehensive assessment of the multifamily mortgage market available.