Last year saw $110.1 billion in new mortgages for multifamily properties with five or more units, a 60% increase from 2010 levels, according to the Annual Report on Multifamily Lending released by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
However, the MBA adds that although 2,653 different multifamily lenders were active in this space, 72% of the lenders originated five or fewer multifamily loans last 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,’ says Jamie Woodwell, the 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.’
