How New City Financial underwrites apartment-complex financing
Once a residential building crosses five units, it stops being financed like a house and starts being financed like a business — and that is where New City Financial operates. We underwrite apartment complexes on the property's own cash flow rather than your personal income, starting with net operating income and the debt-service coverage ratio (DSCR) instead of your tax returns or W-2s. Deals that clear a 1.0 DSCR or better, backed by a credible rent roll and in-place or projected rents, are our core business. That cash-flow-first approach is what lets an individual investor, a partnership, or an LLC add units without the personal-income documentation a conventional residential lender would demand.
On terms, we lend up to 75% of value, on loan amounts from $75,000 to $50 million, with a 500 FICO floor and closings in under three weeks when title and third-party reports cooperate. Fixed-rate structures over 3, 8, and 30 years — with no balloon payments — give multifamily owners a debt cost they can hold rents and expenses against, which matters while rehab timelines and lease-up are still in motion. We lend across 40+ states, and any rates shown on this site are illustrative — your actual pricing depends on the asset, the market, your leverage, and sponsor experience.
Multifamily deals we finance
We finance the full range of 5+ unit multifamily: stabilized garden-style and walk-up buildings with staggered leases, mid-size complexes under professional management, and larger properties where economies of scale drive the returns. The business plan drives the structure. Acquisition financing puts a stabilized building under contract; a value-add loan funds the purchase and repositioning of an under-leased or dated complex, where renovating units and common areas and re-tenanting at market lifts NOI; rate-and-term refinance replaces a maturing or higher-cost loan; and cash-out refinance pulls accumulated equity to fund the next acquisition or a capital-improvement budget.
Because every loan is business-purpose, we work with investors and business owners rather than consumer homebuyers, and we do not finance primary residences — though an owner-occupied unit within a qualifying commercial multifamily building is fine as part of an investment asset. As a commercial lending firm, what we need to move quickly is the rent roll, a trailing operating statement, and your plan for the property. If you are weighing whether a specific complex pencils, a short conversation about the in-place NOI and your business plan is the fastest way to a real number.
What makes 5+ unit multifamily distinct to underwrite
Multifamily behaves differently from most commercial asset classes, and that shapes how we read a deal. Income is spread across many tenants, so a single vacancy does not sink the building the way losing an anchor can in retail or office — that diversification tends to make in-place cash flow steadier and more financeable. Residential demand also holds up through most market cycles, since people need housing regardless of conditions. At the same time, expenses matter: turnover, utilities, maintenance, and management all come straight out of NOI, so a clean trailing operating statement and a realistic expense load carry real weight in our analysis. We look closely at unit mix, per-unit rents relative to the submarket, and how much of the projected NOI depends on rents you have not yet achieved — because a value-add plan is only as strong as its lease-up assumptions.
Financing that fits a long-term multifamily hold
Apartment complexes are usually bought to hold, and the debt should match that horizon. Our fixed-rate structures run over 3, 8, and 30 years with no balloon payments, so an owner is not forced into a refinance at an inconvenient point in the market or in the middle of a lease-up. A predictable, fixed payment lets you underwrite your own returns with confidence: you know exactly what debt service comes out of net operating income each month, and you can plan rent increases, capital projects, and reserves around a cost of capital that will not move on you. That stability is a big part of why stabilized multifamily is such a financeable asset class in the first place.
As the property performs and equity builds, a cash-out refinance lets you recycle that equity into the next acquisition or a capital-improvement budget without selling, and a rate-and-term refinance can replace a maturing or higher-cost loan on stronger footing. Because we lend across 40+ states, an owner expanding beyond a single market can keep one lending relationship as the portfolio grows. Every loan is business-purpose and cash-flow-underwritten, so the conversation stays focused on the asset — its rent roll, its operating history, and your plan for it — rather than on personal income documentation, and any rates you see referenced are illustrative until we price your specific deal.
