Fannie Mae Flexible Choice Bridge Loans

What Happened to Flexible Choice Bridge

Fannie Mae's published financing options and its Term Sheet Library carry no Flexible Choice Bridge product as of July 31, 2026, checked against multifamily.fanniemae.com/financing-options and its term sheet library index. If you are trying to place a bridge-to-agency deal today, this is the page that tells you where the demand actually goes.

The underlying need has not gone anywhere. A sponsor buys a property that will not support permanent agency debt yet, needs 12 to 36 months to fix it, and wants a clean path into a Fannie loan at the end without re-competing the whole financing. Fannie now answers that need with several specific executions rather than one bridge product.

Which Execution Replaces It?

It depends on why the property is not stabilized, and the four cases are genuinely different.

Newly built and still leasing. Near-Stabilization funds permanent non-recourse debt at 75% physical occupancy at rate lock, with 12 months of interest only, on loans of $10 million or more. This is the closest thing to a bridge in Fannie's current lineup, and it eliminates the bridge entirely rather than financing it. See near-stabilization financing.

Affordable property being renovated with tenants in place. The ROAR execution provides permanent financing through a rehab of up to $120,000 per unit, letting occupancy fall to 50% and coverage fall to 1.0x on an interest-only basis during the work. Fannie states directly that it eliminates the need for a construction loan. Covered on our ROAR page.

A portfolio being assembled or repositioned. Bulk Delivery and Credit Facility both let a borrower add, substitute, and release properties over time. Details on Fannie Mae bulk delivery.

Everything else. A balance sheet or debt fund bridge loan, then a Fannie takeout at stabilization. That is still the honest answer for heavy value-add on conventional property, and it always has been.

The Freddie Comparison

Freddie Mac does publish short-term products in this space, which is worth knowing before you conclude the agencies have left the bridge market.

The Optigo Value-Add Loan is a three-year, floating-rate, full-term interest-only loan for renovations of $10,000 to $25,000 per unit, with no interest rate cap required and a 1% exit fee waived on refinance into a Freddie conventional loan. Freddie also publishes a Moderate Rehab loan for larger scopes and a Lease-Up loan for properties still filling. See Freddie Mac value-add loans and moderate rehab loans.

Fannie product availability checked against multifamily.fanniemae.com/financing-options and the Fannie Mae Term Sheet Library, July 31, 2026. Freddie product terms from the Optigo Value-Add Loan term sheet, mf.freddiemac.com/docs/product/value_add.pdf, dated 04/25.

How Do You Choose Between a Bridge and Waiting?

Run the cost of carrying floating-rate bridge debt for 24 months against the proceeds difference between financing today at as-is numbers and financing later at as-stabilized numbers. Bridge debt is expensive, and on a modest lift the arithmetic frequently favors taking a smaller permanent loan now and adding a supplemental in 12 months.

Fannie supplementals become available 12 months after the senior loan closes, at up to 70% LTV and coverage as low as 1.30x depending on asset class and use of proceeds. That two-step is cheaper than most bridge structures and it is the move sponsors overlook. See how supplementals size.

What If Your Deal Genuinely Needs a Bridge?

Then price it as a bridge and plan the exit from the start. Match the bridge term to a realistic stabilization date with margin, confirm the agency takeout parameters before you close the bridge rather than after, and model the exit at a coverage test rather than at a value test. Our DSCR calculator will show you what NOI the property has to reach.

Tell us what the property needs and how long the work takes. We will tell you whether an agency execution already covers it, and what a bridge would cost if not.