Written & reviewed by Stephen A. Sobin, President of Select Commercial Funding LLC
Illinois
Illinois Apartment Loans
Select Commercial arranges Illinois apartment loans from $1,500,000, up to 80% LTV, with rates as low as 5.87%. We compare Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, bank and bridge programs to fit your property. For larger balances, see multifamily loans. See current rates on every loan type we offer.
Get a Free QuoteFinancing Options in Illinois
Illinois apartment, multifamily and commercial properties each have dedicated financing. Pick the page that matches your property:
Financing more of the state? See Illinois commercial mortgages.
Financing in another state? Explore our apartment loans, multifamily loans and commercial mortgages nationwide.
Illinois Apartment Loan Rates
Rates updated as of September 8, 2026
| Loan Type | Rate* | Max LTV |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Year Fixed | 6.27% | Up to 80% |
| 7 Year Fixed | 6.33% | Up to 80% |
| 10 Year Fixed | 6.39% | Up to 80% |
| Loan Type | Rate* | Max LTV |
|---|---|---|
| 5 Year Fixed | 5.87% | Up to 75% |
| 7 Year Fixed | 5.94% | Up to 75% |
| 10 Year Fixed | 5.99% | 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 September 8, 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 Illinois Apartment Loan Programs
As a broker we compare every program for your best-fit Illinois apartment financing:
| Program | Typical rate* | Max leverage | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fannie Mae Small Loan | 6.20% | Up to 80% | Non-recourse, fixed to 30 yrs |
| Freddie Mac SBL | 6.15% | Up to 80% | $2M to $10M small balance |
| FHA / HUD | 6.40% | Up to 85% | Highest leverage, longest term |
| Bank / portfolio | 6.35% | 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 Illinois Apartment Loan Market
Chicago is quietly one of the better apartment markets in the country in 2026, and very few people outside the Midwest are saying so. Advertised rents averaged $1,972 a unit in the second quarter of 2026, up 3.2% over the year, a pace bettered by only New York and San Francisco among the thirty largest markets. Occupancy ran 94.9%, comfortably above the metro’s ten-year average of 93.8%. Downtown rents averaged $3,124 and suburban rents $1,788 (Q2 2026).
Scarcity is doing the work. The metro delivered 2,904 units in the first half of 2026 and has 9,935 under construction, expanding inventory by roughly 0.6%, one of the thinnest pipelines of any large U.S. market. Full-year 2026 deliveries are forecast below 4,000 units, which would be the lowest since 2012.
The other side of that, honestly. Net absorption through the second quarter came to 1,743 units, down about 59% from the same point a year earlier. Demand cooled while rents still rose, which is what happens when there is almost nothing new to lease. It is a market held up by scarcity rather than by a surge of new renters, and a lender will read it that way. On the investment side, the metro traded $727.4 million across 178 transactions and 4,373 units in July 2026, averaging roughly $166,300 a unit.
Across Illinois 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.
Illinois Markets We Finance
Illinois is really three lending markets: the city, the collar counties and downstate. They differ less on rents than on taxes, building age and which lenders show up, and an Illinois apartment mortgage gets structured accordingly.
Chicago and Cook County
The deepest apartment market between the coasts, the anchor of every Illinois lending decision, and the one with the most distinctive tax profile in the country. Rents outside downtown averaged $1,633 and grew 3.9% over the year, ahead of both downtown’s pace on a percentage basis and the suburbs at 1.5% (Q2 2026). The stock skews old: 1920s courtyard buildings, greystones and three-flats that finance well when the capital plan is credible and get repriced fast when it is not. Agency, bank and credit union money all compete here, and Chicago apartment loan rates for a stabilized building with a clean rent roll are as sharp as anywhere in the Midwest.
The collar counties
Naperville and Joliet are where the metro’s newer garden and mid-rise product sits, with cleaner expense ratios and steadier occupancy than the city stock. Suburban Chicago rents grew 1.5% over the year, slower than the city but off a base that requires far less capital spending. Illinois banks and credit unions compete hard for apartment building loans out here because they know the submarkets better than a national lender does.
Downstate Illinois
Rockford and the smaller downstate cities price on an entirely different basis: a much lower cost per unit, higher cap rates, and cash-on-cash returns that Chicago buyers rarely see. Construction has been minimal across downstate Illinois for years, so occupancy has held. Agency small-balance programs and regional banks are both active apartment building lenders in these markets, and the same borrower frequently clears more leverage downstate than on a comparable Cook County asset.
Where we do not yet have a dedicated apartment page for an Illinois city, the link goes to our commercial mortgage page for that market, which covers apartment and mixed-use property alongside other commercial types.
What Cook County Property Taxes Mean for Your Illinois Apartment Loan
No line item catches Illinois apartment borrowers out more often than property taxes. Two features of the system work strongly in your favor, and one deserves real caution.
In your favor: apartments are assessed as residential. In Cook County an apartment building of seven or more units is Class 3 property, assessed at 10% of market value, the same level as a single-family house. Commercial and industrial property is assessed at 25%. That gap is worth genuine money every year, and it is one reason apartment buildings pencil in Cook County where other property types struggle.
Also in your favor: Illinois has no rent control. The state has preempted local rent control since 1997, so no Illinois municipality, Chicago included, can cap what you charge. A lender underwriting rent growth here is not working against a statutory ceiling the way it would be in California or New York, and that shows up in how confidently your net operating income gets projected.
Where to be careful: reassessment. Cook County reassesses on a three-year cycle by triad, and 2026 is the south and west suburbs’ year, covering townships including Berwyn, Cicero, Oak Park, Proviso, Riverside, Orland, Palos, Thornton and Worth, with notices going out in the spring. Assessed value is then multiplied by a state equalization factor, set tentatively at 2.8683 for the 2025 tax year, before the local rate applies. An Illinois building that trades or reassesses can see its tax line move far enough to change debt service coverage, so any lender worth using will stress your DSCR against a higher tax bill rather than the one on your current operating statement. Budget for it before you sign a purchase contract, not after.
And if you are buying in the city: Chicago’s transfer tax runs $5.25 per $500 of price, with another $0.50 to the state and $0.25 to the county, roughly 1.20% of the purchase price all in. The graduated rate proposed under Bring Chicago Home, which would have raised that sharply on larger transactions, was rejected by voters in March 2024 and never took effect.
One item to watch rather than act on: a new Illinois rental law signed in June 2026 as Public Act 104-0479 takes effect January 1, 2027 and adds disclosure and fee requirements on residential rentals. Confirm the specifics with your counsel before setting a fee schedule for next year.
Refinancing an Illinois Apartment Building
Illinois refinances are sizing well right now for a straightforward reason: rents are up better than 3% over the year while almost nothing new has been built to compete with your building. Net operating income has grown on most stabilized Chicago properties, and proceeds follow net operating income.
Start with the rent roll and the trailing twelve. An apartment complex refinance is sized on in-place income, so the current rent roll and twelve months of operating statements set your number before anything else is discussed. On older city stock the expense side gets read closely, because a 1920s courtyard building with an unfunded capital plan underwrites very differently from the same building with a documented one.
Then the tax line, specifically. This is the Illinois-specific step most owners skip. If your property sits in a triad due for reassessment, or you bought recently at a price above the last assessed value, the taxes on your current statement may not be the taxes the lender uses. Ask what tax figure is being underwritten before you get to term sheet, because that single number moves proceeds more than a quarter point of rate does.
Then the note. Confirm the maturity date and whether prepayment is yield maintenance, a step-down or open. Starting six to nine months ahead of a balloon leaves room to shop more than one lender rather than take an extension from the incumbent. Cash-out is available on most programs where the equity supports it, and Chicago owners who bought before the run-up in rents often have more of it than they expect.
Send the rent roll and the trailing twelve and we will underwrite the building the way the lender will, then come back with written options inside 48 hours at no cost. Illinois apartment loans start at $1,500,000, whether it is a twelve-unit courtyard building in Chicago or a garden complex in Naperville.
Illinois Multifamily Financing
Apartment loan and multifamily loan mean the same thing here: debt on a building with five or more residential units. We arrange it across Illinois, from a six-unit greystone to an institutional portfolio, and which term you use changes nothing about how the building is underwritten.
Loan size changes the lender set, though. Smaller Illinois balances usually price best with Chicago-area banks, credit unions and the agency small-balance programs, where knowing the block matters and a clean rent roll carries the file. Larger balances bring in 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.
Illinois multifamily lenders pay unusual attention to two things: the tax assessment and the capital plan on older stock. Get both documented and the rest of an Illinois file moves quickly. 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.
Illinois Apartment Loan Types We Serve
We arrange financing across Illinois 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 Illinois
We arrange apartment loans throughout Illinois, not only in the markets above. Downstate cities and the smaller collar-county suburbs are financed with the same agency, bank and credit union programs, and a well-occupied building outside Cook County often supports more leverage than its owner expects.
For larger balances see our Illinois multifamily loans. For office, retail, industrial and owner-occupied property see Illinois 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 Illinois
As a full-service commercial mortgage broker, we arrange Illinois 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 Illinois Apartment Loan Quote
No cost, no obligation. Written answers within 48 hours on Illinois apartment loans from $1,500,000.
- No application or processing fees
- Written answers within 48 hours
- For 5+ unit and commercial properties, $1.5M and up
Illinois City Spotlights: 2026 Apartment Market Notes
Beyond the major metros, we finance apartment buildings across Illinois. Current market notes for cities where borrowers ask us to lend:
- Rockford: median 1-bedroom rent about $997, up 9% year over year (Zumper, August 2026).
- Naperville: median 1-bedroom rent about $1,850, flat year over year (Zumper, August 2026), an affluent DuPage County market where we finance 5+ unit and mixed-use apartment properties.
National baseline for context: the U.S. median rent was $1,388 in July 2026, down 1.1% year over year, with rental vacancy near 7.2% (national rent report, July 2026). Each city above links to our local commercial mortgage page, and we finance 5+ unit apartment properties in every Illinois market from $1,500,000.