Fannie Mae Student Housing Loans
Fannie Mae splits student housing at 80% of units. Cross that line and four hard location and operating tests apply that do not apply below it.
Two Definitions That Decide Your Deal
Fannie Mae splits student housing in half, and the line falls at 80% of units. A Student Housing property is one where more than 40% of units are leased to undergraduate or graduate students. A Dedicated Student Housing property is one where 80% or more are. The second category carries additional underwriting documentation and four hard location and operating tests that the first does not.
Get this wrong on the way in and you will find out at underwriting, which is the expensive place to find out. Count your leases before you go to application.
| Term | Five to 30 years |
|---|---|
| Amortization | Up to 30 years |
| Rate | Fixed and variable options |
| Maximum LTV | 75% |
| Minimum DSCR | 1.30x fixed rate; 1.05x variable rate, subject to a fixed rate test |
| Loan size | No stated limit. Fannie says there is no size limit for student housing deals |
| Leasing basis | Per unit or per bed |
| Location | Cannot sit on university-owned land, except for a qualifying Dedicated Student Housing property |
| Prepayment | Yield maintenance or declining prepayment premium on fixed rate; declining prepayment premium on variable rate |
| Rate lock | 30 to 180 day commitments, delegated at all Tier levels through Streamlined Rate Lock |
| Recourse | Non-recourse with standard carve-outs for bad acts such as fraud and bankruptcy |
| Supplemental financing | Available |
Terms confirmed against the Fannie Mae Student Housing term sheet at multifamily.fanniemae.com/financing-options/student-housing/student-housing, fetched July 31, 2026.
What Does Dedicated Status Require?
Four things, all of them checkable before you make an offer. The property must be near a campus with at least 10,000 full-time student enrollment. It must be within two miles of the campus boundary or on a college or university owned transportation line. It must have operated for at least one full school year, from roughly August through May, and be in its second full year of operations. And at least 80% of leases must run 12 months with parental guaranties, or be held by students who can document the financial ability to pay.
A dedicated property may sit on university-owned land, but only if the key principal has at least five years of dedicated student housing experience and already operates another dedicated property on college or university owned land.
Why the Enrollment Floor?
Because 10,000 students is roughly the point at which the private off-campus market becomes deep enough to absorb a vacancy. Below it, one new competitor or one dormitory expansion can move your occupancy 15 points, and there is no second demand pool to fall back on. Fannie is pricing the concentration risk, and the number is not negotiable.
What This Product Will Not Do
Construction financing. Fannie states directly that it provides debt only for existing, stabilized, purpose-built student housing. If you are developing, you need a construction lender and an agency takeout, and Fannie's Near-Stabilization execution is the relevant takeout to look at. See how near-stabilization works.
Does the FHFA Volume Cap Apply?
Yes. Student housing loans count against the volume cap FHFA sets each year. There is one carve-out worth knowing: FHFA excludes the pro rata portion of the loan amount based on the share of units affordable at 80% of area median income or below. On a property with meaningful workforce-level rents, that exclusion can change how eager a lender is to place your deal late in a capped year.
Stacking Other Fannie Products on a Student Deal
The student housing desk uses the rest of Fannie's toolkit rather than a separate set of rules. Credit facilities are available for portfolios. Green financing works well here, since water and energy savings drop straight to the owner's bottom line in a building where turnover is annual and fixtures take a beating. Streamlined Rate Lock is delegated at all Tier levels.
Interest-only and modified yield maintenance structures available on conventional loans are available on student housing loans too. See Fannie Mae green financing for the proceeds boost, and supplemental loans for adding debt later.
Fannie or Freddie for a Student Deal?
Both are serious in this space and the tests differ in ways that decide individual deals. Freddie sets a $5 million minimum loan, a two-mile location test, and 80% maximum LTV at seven years, at 1.30x. Fannie caps LTV at 75% at 1.30x fixed but goes to 1.05x on variable rate loans subject to a fixed rate test.
A stabilized property with strong pre-leasing near a large campus can usually get quotes from both. Compare on our Freddie Mac student housing page, then run the proceeds difference through our DSCR calculator.
Send us the pre-leasing report, the enrollment trend, and the lease structure. We will tell you which agency sizes higher on your property.
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