BOSTON – MassHousing announced that Capital One will partner with the Agency in its Multifamily Accelerated Processing (MAP) lending program, which allows for an expedited process for the owners of rental housing communities to refinance, renovate and preserve their properties, while extending affordability protections for thousands of low-income individuals, families and senior citizens.
MassHousing offers the MAP loan program – solely or with a joint venture partner – to the owners of rental housing in Massachusetts through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). HUD provides expedited Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insurance approvals through the MAP program, which allows for a faster review process and lower interest rates. MassHousing selected Capital One as a MAP joint venture partner as a result of a competitive request for proposals.
“Capital One shares MassHousing’s commitment to confront the housing challenges facing Massachusetts residents, and we are excited to add them as a MAP joint venture partner,” said MassHousing Executive Director Chrystal Kornegay. “Capital One will work with us to create new solutions to preserve much-needed affordable housing, extending affordability protections in quality rental homes for lower-income households and senior citizens, while delivering new financing solutions to property owners.”
Capital One’s Commercial Real Estate Group offers a comprehensive array of financing solutions for property owners and developers nationwide, including balance sheet and agency lending.
“Partnering with MassHousing on the MAP program represents an opportunity to leverage the strength of our FHA platform to help provide affordable housing for individuals and families in Massachusetts,” said Drew Ades, a Senior Vice President at Capital One Multifamily Finance. “We look forward to innovating with MassHousing to address this critical need.”
Capital One joins Rockport Mortgage Corporation and CBRE as a MassHousing MAP lending joint venture partner. Since MassHousing became an approved MAP lender in 2015, the Agency has provided more than $1 billion in financing for 44 rental housing communities in Massachusetts serving more than 7,500 lower-income senior citizens and households.
MassHousing’s use of the MAP program allows the Agency to partner with Massachusetts affordable housing developers to preserve affordable housing by utilizing taxable mortgages that offer competitive interest rates. This proactive preservation strategy enables the Agency to preserve more affordable homes than would otherwise be possible, while conserving limited public resources, such as tax-exempt debt and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. The average interest rate for the Agency’s 44 MAP transactions closed to date was 3.58 percent.
Since MassHousing began executing MAP transactions, the Agency has consistently ranked among the nation’s larger HUD lenders, building the most productive MAP lending program of any state housing finance agency.
Despite MassHousing being statutorily limited to lending only in Massachusetts, the Agency has been among the top 30 HUD lenders nationally since 2015 in both the number of loans transacted, and the total amount of financing provided. In HUD fiscal year 2019, MassHousing was ranked 12th for the number of loans produced nationally and 24th in the amount of financing provided.
“Capital One brought a creative and innovative enthusiasm for this type of lending that MassHousing felt could further us in our ability to provide and preserve affordable rental housing opportunities for residents across the state,” said Mark Teden, MassHousing’s Vice President of Multifamily Programs. “We are excited to collaborate with Capital One going forward to offer the best financing opportunities for the owners of these important housing communities.”
For each MAP transaction, MassHousing issues a Ginnie Mae Mortgage Backed Security (MBS) and continues as the mortgagee of record and becomes a Ginnie Mae servicer. This ensures affordability, as each completed transaction will require the property owner to rent at least 20 percent of the units to those earning less than 80 percent of the area median income. Affordability at many properties could be at risk were MassHousing unable to offer this product, as owners could refinance with other lenders who do not require affordability restrictions.
