Freddie Mac Seniors Housing Loans
Freddie Mac sizes seniors housing by acuity. Independent living underwrites at 1.30x and stand-alone memory care at 1.60x, and the LTV ceiling moves with it.
What Freddie Mac Finances Under Seniors Housing
Seniors housing is where multifamily underwriting stops being about rent rolls and starts being about operations. Freddie Mac's Optigo Seniors Housing loan reflects that. It finances the acquisition or refinance of purpose-built seniors properties, and it prices the coverage requirement off how much care the property delivers.
Four property types are eligible: independent living, assisted living, memory care, and properties with a limited amount of skilled nursing. Skilled nursing cannot exceed 20% of net operating income. Any combination of those four works.
Why Does the Coverage Requirement Move by Acuity?
Because the revenue does. Independent living looks close to conventional apartments, with residents paying rent for a unit and some services. Memory care is a labor-intensive operating business inside a building, with staffing ratios, licensure, and a census that can move fast. Freddie sizes the loan to that risk, and the gap between the two is wide.
| Independent living | 1.30x minimum amortizing DCR. Maximum 70% LTV on a five-year to under-seven-year term, 75% at seven years and beyond. Full-term interest only caps at 60%, or 65% above seven years |
|---|---|
| Assisted living (more than 50% AL units) | 1.40x minimum DCR. Same LTV ladder: 70%, then 75%; 60% to 65% on full-term interest only |
| Skilled nursing component | 1.45x minimum DCR, capped at 20% of property NOI. Same LTV ladder |
| Stand-alone memory care (100% memory care) | 1.60x minimum DCR. Maximum 60% LTV under seven years, 65% at seven years and beyond, 55% on full-term interest only |
Sized from the Optigo Seniors Housing Loan term sheet, mf.freddiemac.com/docs/product/seniors_housing.pdf, dated 4/26 and fetched July 31, 2026. Floating-rate proceeds are calculated on the sizing note rate, and interest-only coverage is measured using an amortizing payment.
Terms, Fees, and What the Lender Will Want
Loan terms run five to 10 years, and out to 30 years on fixed-rate loans. Fixed-rate, floating-rate, and supplemental loans are all eligible, and Freddie says other programs may be available on a waiver basis. Replacement reserve, tax, and insurance escrows are generally required.
The application fee is the greater of $5,000 or 0.15% of the loan amount. Quoted spreads are held for 75 days from a signed loan application, which is enough runway to close at the spread you were quoted and, if you used it, at your Index Lock rate.
Who Can Be the Borrower?
Freddie splits this at $5 million. Below that, the borrower may be a single asset entity with some added restrictions, and can be a limited partnership, a general partnership with no individual general partners, an LLC, a corporation, or a REIT structured as a corporation rather than a trust. At $5 million and above, the borrower must be a single purpose entity and must be a limited partnership, corporation, or LLC. Section 6.13 of the loan agreement sets the SPE requirements.
Tenancy in common structures require every tenant in common to be an SPE. Freddie's own term sheet says TICs are not encouraged, which is about as direct as agency documents get.
Underneath all of it sits one requirement that has killed more seniors deals than any ratio: you need to be an experienced owner or operator of comparable facilities. A strong multifamily track record does not substitute.
Can You Skip the Refinance Test?
Yes, at low enough leverage. No refinance test is required if the loan is at 55% LTV or less and the amortizing coverage clears the acuity threshold: 1.45x for independent living, 1.55x for assisted living, 1.60x for assisted living with skilled nursing beds, and 1.75x for stand-alone memory care.
How This Sits Against the Other Seniors Executions
Freddie is one of three places a seniors housing deal goes. HUD's Section 232 program insures residential care facilities on longer, fully amortizing terms with mortgage insurance premiums attached. Fannie Mae runs its own seniors housing product. Balance sheet lenders take the deals that need a story.
Freddie tends to win on execution speed and on the 75-day spread hold, and it competes hardest on independent living and assisted living where the operating risk is legible. Deep memory care at 60% LTV is a real constraint, and that is where sponsors start looking at HUD financing.
Freddie also allows properties with changing or expanded acuity to be financed, which matters for owners repositioning independent living units into assisted living over the hold.
What Should You Have Ready?
Trailing twelve operating statements with the care revenue broken out from the rental revenue, census by care level, staffing costs, the state licensure file, and your operator's track record on comparable assets. Run the property at the acuity-adjusted coverage before you sign anything: our DSCR calculator will tell you fast whether 1.60x is reachable on your current NOI.
Send us the operating statements and the census. We will tell you which of the three executions your property actually clears.
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