During a year of pandemic-related disruptions, Fannie Mae provided support to multifamily borrowers and increased its commitment to much-needed affordable housing. It also had a record 2020, providing $76 billion in financing for the multifamily market—the highest volume in the history of its 32-year Delegated Underwriting and Servicing (DUS) program.
“Fannie Mae continued to play an important role as a source of financing for multifamily rental housing at a time when borrowers and their tenants faced unprecedented challenges,” said Michele Evans, executive vice president of multifamily. “Working with our DUS lenders, we served as a reliable source of financing for multifamily borrowers in an extraordinary year that called for the development of resources for renters and forbearance for borrowers.”
Fannie Mae’s affordable housing volume totaled $9.3 billion in 2020. For multifamily affordable housing, including rent-restricted properties and properties receiving other federal and state subsidies, volume increased more than 9% to $7.8 billion in 2020 from $7.2 billion the prior year. In addition, $1.5 billion supported properties with rent restrictions between 60% and 80% of the area median income.
The government-sponsored enterprise’s structured transactions volume, which supported multifamily affordable housing—particularly workforce housing—totaled $11.6 billion, a significant increase from $8.6 billion in 2019. Its manufactured communities financing program also helped to support affordable housing, reaching $5.5 billion in 2020, a 120% jump from $2.5 billion in 2019. Fannie Mae also saw an increase its small loans program, defined as loans of $6 million or less for properties with five to 50 units, with a more than 58% increase to $7.6 billion in 2020.
Walker & Dunlop ranked as the top DUS lender with the highest business volume in 2020—$11.4 billion, followed by CBRE Multifamily Capital with $6.8 billion and Berkadia Commercial Mortgage with $6.7 billion. PGIM Real Estate and Newmark rounded out the top five.
In terms of multifamily affordable housing last year, Wells Fargo Multifamily Capital, JLL Real Estate Capital, Walker & Dunlop, PGIM Real Estate, and KeyBank were the top five DUS producers. For structured transactions, the top five DUS producers were Walker & Dunlop, Newmark, PGIM Real Estate, KeyBank, and Wells Fargo Multifamily Capital.
