Written & reviewed by Stephen A. Sobin, President of Select Commercial Funding LLC
New Jersey
New Jersey Apartment Loans
Select Commercial arranges New Jersey apartment loans from $1,500,000, up to 80% LTV, with rates as low as 5.67%. We compare Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, bank and bridge programs to fit your property. Larger balances are covered on our multifamily loans page. See current rates on every loan type we offer.
Get a Free QuoteFinancing Options in New Jersey
New Jersey apartment, multifamily and commercial properties each have dedicated financing. Pick the page that matches your property:
Financing more of the state? See New Jersey commercial mortgages.
Financing in another state? Explore our apartment loans, multifamily loans and commercial mortgages nationwide.
New Jersey Apartment Loan Rates
Rates updated as of August 31, 2026
| Loan Type | Rate* | Max LTV |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Year Fixed | 6.07% | Up to 80% |
| 7 Year Fixed | 6.17% | Up to 80% |
| 10 Year Fixed | 6.25% | Up to 80% |
| Loan Type | Rate* | Max LTV |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Year Fixed | 5.67% | Up to 75% |
| 7 Year Fixed | 5.77% | Up to 75% |
| 10 Year Fixed | 5.85% | Up to 75% |
- Streamlined underwriting for institutional multifamily
- Cash-out refinances are acceptable
- Interest-only and non-recourse options
- Minimum 1.25x debt-service-coverage ratio
Rates last updated August 31, 2026. Rates and maximum LTV shown represent our best-case pricing scenarios. Actual rates, LTV, and loan terms are subject to underwriting approval and may vary.
Compare New Jersey Apartment Loan Programs
As a broker we compare every program for your best-fit New Jersey apartment financing:
| Program | Typical rate* | Max leverage | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fannie Mae Small Loan | 6.07% | Up to 80% | Non-recourse, fixed to 30 yrs |
| Freddie Mac SBL | 6.15% | Up to 80% | $2M to $10M small balance |
| FHA / HUD | 6.12% | Up to 85% | Highest leverage, longest term |
| Bank / portfolio | 6.25% | Up to 75% | Flexible, value-add |
| Bridge | 9.00% | Up to 80% LTC | Reposition, lease-up |
Most apartment lenders look for a debt-service-coverage ratio (DSCR) of at least 1.25x.
2026 New Jersey Apartment Loan Market
New Jersey is the most locally regulated apartment market in the country outside New York, and that shapes a loan here more than any market statistic does. Rent control is set town by town rather than by the state, property taxes are the highest or second highest in the nation depending on whose methodology you use, and the transfer fee regime changed in 2025. Get those three right and the financing is straightforward. Miss one and the file stalls.
Fundamentals are solid. Statewide occupancy finished 2025 at 94.1% on an all-product basis, an improvement of about 300 basis points over the year, with North Jersey at 94.8% and Central Jersey at 92.3%. North Jersey delivered 2,066 units in the first quarter of 2026. Investment activity turned sharply: statewide sales volume reached roughly $2.3 billion in 2025, more than double the prior year.
Proximity to Manhattan is the whole demand story in the north. Hudson and Bergen counties price off the New York employment market while carrying New Jersey operating costs, which is why the Gold Coast trades at a premium to the rest of the state. Central and southern New Jersey run on their own logic, with the Philadelphia employment market pulling on Camden and Cherry Hill.
One number to treat carefully. Rent growth readings for Jersey City in 2026 disagree outright, with one widely used index showing rents up over the year and another showing them down. Different panels, opposite signs. On a New Jersey apartment building, underwrite the actual rent roll rather than any published index.
Across New Jersey we arrange apartment building loans from $1,500,000 through agency, bank, FHA and bridge programs. Rate and leverage follow the rent roll and the trailing twelve months of operating income, not your personal income.
New Jersey Markets We Finance
New Jersey divides cleanly into a New York half and a Philadelphia half, with a middle that belongs to neither. Rents, taxes and rent ordinances all change as you move down the state.
Hudson County and the Gold Coast
Jersey City, Hoboken and Weehawken price off Manhattan and carry the state’s densest, newest apartment stock. Both Jersey City and Hoboken operate rent control ordinances, and in Jersey City the ordinance exempts properties of one to four units, which means the 5+ unit buildings we finance are generally covered. That single fact decides what income a lender will project, so establish coverage before anything else. Agency, bank and life company capital all compete here, and Jersey City apartment loan rates on a stabilized building with a clean rent roll are among the sharpest in New Jersey.
Jersey City apartment loans · Jersey City commercial
Essex, Bergen and northern New Jersey
Newark anchors Essex County with older, larger stock and a rent ordinance of its own, while Bergen County spreads across dozens of separate municipalities, each with its own rules and its own tax rate. Paterson and Elizabeth both regulate increases as well. This is the part of the state where two comparable buildings fifteen minutes apart can underwrite completely differently, purely because of which town they sit in. Confirm the ordinance before you contract, not after.
Newark · Paterson · Elizabeth · Bergen County · Essex County · Union County
Central New Jersey
Middlesex, Somerset and Monmouth counties carry newer garden and mid-rise product with cleaner expense ratios than the northern cities, and pharmaceutical, logistics and university employment underpinning demand. Central New Jersey ran looser on occupancy than the north through 2025, near 92.3%, so a lender will look closely at what is leasing up nearby before sizing an apartment complex loan here.
Southern New Jersey and the shore
Camden, Cherry Hill and the Route 42 corridor price off the Philadelphia employment market at a materially lower basis than anywhere north of Trenton. The shore communities run on a seasonal economy that lenders read differently again, with year-round occupancy the number that matters rather than peak-season rents. Regional banks and credit unions dominate apartment building financing across the southern half of the state.
Where we do not yet have a dedicated apartment page for a New Jersey city or county, the link goes to our commercial mortgage page for that market, which covers apartment and mixed-use property alongside other commercial types.
New Jersey Rent Control Is Set Town by Town
This is the defining feature of New Jersey apartment lending and the thing that most often surprises an out-of-state buyer. There is no statewide rent control law. Instead a large number of individual municipalities have their own ordinances, and they are not written alike.
What differs from town to town. The annual cap itself, often tied to a local consumer price index measure. Which buildings are covered, usually by unit count and sometimes by construction date. Whether vacancy decontrol applies, meaning whether you can reset to market when a unit turns. Registration and filing obligations. And the penalties for getting it wrong. Jersey City and Hoboken both run long-standing ordinances, Newark, Paterson and Elizabeth all regulate increases in some form, and dozens of smaller municipalities do as well.
Why a lender cares so much. An underwriter cannot project rent growth the ordinance does not permit, and cannot credit a turnover premium in a town without vacancy decontrol. Two identical buildings a few miles apart will support different loan amounts purely because of the ordinance each sits under. This is also the most common cause of a New Jersey file being re-sized late, after the lender’s counsel reads the ordinance and finds something the borrower had not.
What to do about it. Before you go under contract, confirm three things directly with the municipality’s rent control or rent leveling office: whether the building is covered, what the current permitted increase is, and whether the property’s registration is current and in good standing. Bring that confirmation to the lender with your rent roll. Files that arrive with the ordinance question already answered move materially faster than files that leave it to be discovered.
New Jersey Property Taxes and the 2025 Transfer Fee Change
Property taxes are the largest operating expense on most New Jersey apartment buildings. By the Tax Foundation’s analysis of Census data, New Jersey carries the highest effective property tax rate in the country; by ATTOM’s 2025 figures it ranks second at 1.58%. Either way it is top two nationally, and it varies enormously between municipalities. Because debt service coverage is calculated after operating expenses, the tax line does more to determine your loan amount here than in almost any other state. Work from the actual parcel assessment rather than a county or state average, and if the property has recently traded or been improved, ask what figure the lender intends to underwrite.
The realty transfer fee changed in 2025, and the payer changed with it. For transfers on or after July 10, 2025, the seller pays both the base realty transfer fee and the supplemental fee that buyers previously paid on sales above one million dollars. The supplemental fee is now graduated, rising in steps from 1% through 3.5% as the price increases. The base fee tops out around $6.05 per $500 of consideration on larger transactions, roughly 1.21%.
One point worth confirming with your own counsel. The supplemental fee is imposed by property classification, and New Jersey classifies apartment property separately from general commercial property. Whether the fee reaches a particular building therefore depends on how that parcel is classified rather than simply on its price. Do not assume either way on a specific deal: have counsel confirm the classification before you model the closing costs, because the difference on a larger apartment sale is substantial.
Entity transfers are addressed separately. New Jersey also imposes a controlling interest transfer tax on sales of a controlling stake in an entity that owns qualifying real property, rather than on the deed. Whether it reaches an apartment-classified property is again a classification question for counsel. Structuring around the deed is not a reliable way to avoid transfer costs in this state.
One broader item for anyone looking at development or a value-add rezoning: the 2024 overhaul of New Jersey’s affordable housing obligations has municipalities across the state rezoning to meet their fair-share requirements, which is gradually opening up multifamily sites in towns that had been closed to them.
Refinancing a New Jersey Apartment Building
New Jersey refinances are usually decided by documents rather than by rate, and three of them do most of the work.
The rent roll and the trailing twelve. Proceeds are sized on in-place income, so these set your number before anything else. Under a municipal ordinance your ability to grow that income is capped, which means an underwriter leans harder on expense control and on the spread between in-place and legal maximum rents than on any forward assumption.
The rent control registration. If the building sits in a regulated town, expect the lender to want evidence that registrations are current and that the rents being collected are the rents permitted. A property collecting above the permitted rent is a genuine problem in underwriting, not a technicality, and it is far better found by you than by the lender’s counsel.
The tax bill. With New Jersey property taxes where they are, a reassessment or a recent sale can move the tax line enough to change coverage by itself. Ask what tax figure is being underwritten before you reach term sheet.
Then the note. Confirm the maturity date and whether prepayment is yield maintenance, a step-down or open. Start six to nine months ahead of a balloon so there is room to shop more than one lender rather than accept an extension from the incumbent. Cash-out is available on most programs where the equity supports it, and given how expensive it now is to sell and rebuy in New Jersey, refinancing is frequently the better route to liquidity for a long-term owner.
Send the rent roll, the trailing twelve and your rent control registration if the building is regulated, and we will underwrite it the way the lender will, then come back with written options inside 48 hours at no cost. New Jersey apartment loans start at $1,500,000, whether it is a twelve-unit walk-up in Newark or a garden complex in Middlesex County.
New Jersey Multifamily Financing
Apartment loan and multifamily loan are the same debt on the same asset: a building with five or more residential units. We arrange it across New Jersey, from a small Hudson County walk-up to an institutional portfolio, and the terminology has no effect on how the file is underwritten.
Loan size decides who bids. Smaller New Jersey balances usually price best with regional banks, credit unions and the agency small-balance programs, where knowing the town and its ordinance is worth as much as a pricing sheet. Larger balances open the field to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, life companies and CMBS, and multifamily loan rates there are often tighter because the loan is big enough to securitize, at the cost of a heavier package: full appraisal, property condition report, environmental review, and sizing driven by net operating income, debt service coverage and debt yield.
New Jersey multifamily lenders weigh two things above almost everything else: the municipal rent ordinance and the tax line. Answer both with documents before you apply. Send the rent roll and the trailing twelve months and we will tell you which multifamily lenders are sharpest on your property, and what multifamily financing looks like at that size.
New Jersey Apartment Loan Types We Serve
We arrange financing across New Jersey for:
- Urban high-rise apartment buildings
- Suburban garden apartment complexes
- Small apartment buildings with 5+ units
- Underlying cooperative apartment loans
- Portfolios of small apartment and rental properties
- Mixed-use and other multifamily property
Apartment Loans Across New Jersey
We arrange apartment loans throughout New Jersey, not only in the markets above. Trenton, Camden, Cherry Hill, Atlantic City, New Brunswick and the shore communities are financed through the same agency, bank and credit union programs. In every one of them, the first question is which municipal rent ordinance applies.
For larger balances see our New Jersey multifamily loans. For office, retail, industrial and owner-occupied property see New Jersey commercial mortgages, and nationwide we lend in most major U.S. cities.
Recent Apartment Loan Closings
A sample of apartment and multifamily loans we have arranged for investors nationwide.
Other Property & Loan Types We Finance in New Jersey
As a full-service commercial mortgage broker, we arrange New Jersey financing across every major property and loan type:
We consider commercial loan requests of all sizes, beginning at $1,500,000.
What Our Clients Say
“I am a veterinarian who purchased an existing practice. I was surprised to find a company that offered 100% financing at a good rate, with great terms and rates for medical office financing.”
Carol K. · Chicago, IL“I spoke to several commercial lenders before finding Select Commercial. They got me a lower rate and their service was exceptional. If you need a multifamily loan, you need to talk to Stephen.”
Nathan B. · Philadelphia, PA“Select Commercial was very helpful with my multifamily mortgage. Stephen went over several options and we came up with the best lender to meet my needs. I got the funds and also lowered my payments.”
Gary M. · Portland, OR“Select Commercial offered 100% financing for my medical practice when my bank would have required 20% down. They delivered something my bank could not, and handled everything professionally.”
John C. · Boston, MAGet Your New Jersey Apartment Loan Quote
No cost, no obligation. Written answers within 48 hours on New Jersey apartment loans from $1,500,000.
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- Written answers within 48 hours
- For 5+ unit and commercial properties, $1.5M and up