WASHINGTON, D.C. — Multifamily lending nationwide continues to trend upward, as evidenced by the $195.1 billion in mortgages originated in 2014 by more than 2,800 different multifamily lenders for apartment buildings with five or more units, according to a newly released report compiled by the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).
The 2014 dollar volume represents a 13 percent increase from 2013 levels of $172.5 billion, concludes MBA’s Annual Report on Multifamily Lending for 2014. The average loan size also increased 23 percent, from $3.9 million in 2013 to $4.8 million in 2014.
The report is based on data from MBA’s surveys of large multifamily lenders in the 2014 Commercial Multifamily Annual Origination Volume Summation survey and recently released Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data that covers multifamily loans made by many smaller lenders, particularly commercial banks.
The MBA survey targets dedicated commercial/multifamily originators and covered $400 billion in commercial/multifamily loans in 2014. The HMDA data adds multifamily loans from banks, thrifts and other institutions that meet certain single-family origination thresholds.
“The lending came from a range of lenders, with two-thirds making five or fewer multifamily loans during the year, and went to a range of borrowers, with more than one-quarter of the loans being for $500,000 or less,” says Jamie Woodwell, MBA’s vice president of commercial real estate research.
The $195.1 billion of multifamily mortgages originated in 2014 went to a variety of investors, according to the report. By dollar volume, the greatest percentage of the total, $69 billion or 35 percent, went to commercial bank, thrift and credit union portfolios.
The top five multifamily lenders in 2014 by dollar volume were JPMorgan Chase & Co. ($16.9 billion), Wells Fargo ($16.5 billion), CBRE Capital Markets Inc. ($8.73 billion), Walker & Dunlop ($8.7 billion) and PNC Real Estate ($8.6 billion).
The MBA’s annual report includes a detailed summary of the $195.1 billion multifamily market, profiles of distinct market segments, including the very small loan (loans of $1 million or less) lender segment, a breakout of 2014 multifamily lending volume by investor group and more.
— Scott Reid