A more than two-thirds annual increase in apartment lending has the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. claiming the top spot in the sector.
During all of last year, Freddie Mac reports that its multifamily loan purchase and bond guarantee volume amounted to $47.3 billion.
According to the McLean, Virginia-based company, the 2015 activity made it “the nation’s leader in multifamily lending for the first time.”
In 2014, multifamily volume at the secondary lender came to $28.3 billion.
Freddie noted that
around $17 billion of last year’s loans were not subject to the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s loan purchase $30 billion cap. Over half of 2015’s business was securitized — transferring a majority of the credit risk to private investors.
Multifamily loan amounts at the government-controlled enterprise range from $1 million to several billion dollars.
“Our financing is in every corner of the multifamily market and more diverse than ever, reaching into small balance loans, manufactured housing communities, seniors, student and government subsidized properties,” Freddie Mac Multifamily Executive Vice President David Brickman said in the statement. “We are focused on increasing the availability of mortgage capital, especially to the affordable and workforce housing sectors where demand continues to far outstrip supply.”
Brickman predicts that 2016 multifamily volume will align with overall growth in the market.
