Condo Associations CAN Borrow: A Mortgage Broker Tells You How

"No," your condominium cannot get a mortgage loan. That's because the legal structure of a condominium is fundamentally different from that of a cooperative. In a cooperative, an apartment corporation owns the entire building and acts as landlord to all of the residents. Each resident receives a certain number of shares in the apartment corporation and a (proprietary) lease that entitles him or her to occupy their apartment. Since the apartment corporation owns all of the real estate, it has something to mortgage.

In a condominium, each owners receives title to an individual unit, as well as to an undivided, pro rata ownership interest in the common elements of the condominium association (the lobby, basement areas, grounds, etc.). Since each person owns a piece of the real estate, each has something to mortgage, and many condo-apartment owners do just that.

However, in virtually all cases, the condominium association itself does not own any real estate. Consequently, it has nothing to mortgage.

Condo Collateral

Yet, condominium associations always have had a very valuable asset to offer as security for loans: their right to set and collect the monthly carrying charges from all unit-owners. If the carrying charges are set at a level sufficient to pay all of the operating expenses of the condominium plus the debt service on a loan, most lenders would accept that right as collateral.

Until 1997, however, New York State law prohibited condominium boards from entering into such transactions. But ever since the law changed, financing has been readily available for condominium repair and improvement projects.

Condo associations always have had

a valuable asset to offer as security for

loans: their right to set and collect the

monthly carrying charges.

Unlike cooperative underlying mortgage loans, which are based principally on the value of the real estate used as collateral, loans to condo associations are based almost solely on the cash flow generated by the unit-owners. Therefore, the amount of a condominium loan will be determined largely by the cost of the project being planned, as well as the lender's evaluation of whether all of the work can be completed within a relatively short period of time (one to three years).

Depending on the nature and timing of your work, some lenders may hold back some or all of your loan until you actually need the money. The term of the loan usually will not be longer than five or ten years, and loan payments will be structured to repay the loan plus interest over that period of time. Current interest rates are in the range of six percent, so a $500,000 loan would have total monthly payments of about $5,600 (if repaid over ten years). That averages $56 per month in a 100-unit building.

Other lenders will structure a loan in two pieces: a one- to three-year credit line at a floating rate, followed by a five- to ten-year fixed-rate loan. The interest rate on the credit line will be something like the prime rate plus 1.50 percent (3.25 percent + 1.50 percent = 4.75 percent today), with interest only paid monthly on the balance outstanding during the previous month. If a condominium is planning a lot of work, or one very large project, this format can save you a lot of interest.

A Familiar Process

The process for securing a condominium loan is pretty much like the process for obtaining any other loan. The lender will want to see, among other documentation:

• several years of financial statements,
• an operating budget for the current year,
• a shareholder list with monthly charges and arrears,
• a description of the work to be funded and related cost estimates,
• several years of apartment resale information, and
• a list of property personnel with wages.

The entire process, from start to finish, will take 60 to 90 days.

So, while your condominium cannot get a mortgage loan like your cooperative neighbors, it can get a very good substitute to fund all of your building's capital improvement needs.

 

Patrick B. Niland, a mortgage broker, is the principal of First Funding of New York.

Adapted from Habitat April 2009. For the complete article and more, join our Archive >>