Written & reviewed by Stephen A. Sobin, President of Select Commercial Funding LLC
Louisiana
Louisiana Apartment Loans
Select Commercial arranges Louisiana 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. For larger balances, see multifamily loans. See current rates on every loan type we offer.
Get a Free QuoteFinancing Options in Louisiana
Louisiana apartment, multifamily and commercial properties each have dedicated financing. Pick the page that matches your property:
Financing more of the state? See Louisiana commercial mortgages.
Financing in another state? Explore our apartment loans, multifamily loans and commercial mortgages nationwide.
Louisiana Apartment Loan Rates
Rates updated as of August 30, 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 30, 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 Louisiana Apartment Loan Programs
As a broker we compare every program for your best-fit Louisiana 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 Louisiana Apartment Loan Market
Everything about financing an apartment building in Louisiana runs through one line on the operating statement, and it is not the rent. It is insurance. Because debt service coverage is calculated after operating expenses, a premium that moves sharply can change your loan amount even when your rent roll has not moved at all, and in this state premiums have moved more than almost anywhere.
The two big markets are pulling apart. New Orleans average rent was about $1,377 as of August 2026, down 2.77% over the year, while Baton Rouge reached $1,285, up 3.05%. Population movement out of Orleans Parish and toward the capital region and the north shore explains most of that gap, and lenders read the two markets very differently as a result.
Basis is low and stock is old. Cost per unit across Louisiana sits well below the national average, which means an apartment loan here is generally sized on debt service coverage rather than on loan to value. Much of the rental stock predates modern building codes, and on the coast that combination of age and exposure is exactly what drives an insurance quote.
Across Louisiana we arrange apartment building loans from $1,500,000 through agency, bank, FHA and bridge programs. Rate and leverage follow the rent roll, the trailing twelve months of operating income and the bound insurance policy, not your personal income.
Louisiana Markets We Finance
Louisiana divides less by region than by exposure. How far south a building sits, and how far it is from open water, changes the insurance line and therefore the loan more than any difference in rents does.
New Orleans and the south shore
The state’s largest apartment market and currently its softest, with average rent around $1,377 as of August 2026, down 2.77% over the year. Population has been moving out of Orleans Parish toward the capital region and the north shore, and the stock is among the oldest in the country, much of it predating modern wind and flood standards. That combination makes the bound policy, its wind deductible and the flood zone the dominant variables in how a New Orleans apartment building underwrites. Buildings with documented elevation, roof replacement or other mitigation work carry a real and measurable advantage.
New Orleans apartment loans · New Orleans commercial
Baton Rouge and the capital region
The stronger of the two big markets, at about $1,285 and up 3.05% over the year. State government, LSU, healthcare and the petrochemical corridor along the river give Baton Rouge a broader and steadier employment base than New Orleans, and it has absorbed households moving north out of the coastal parishes. Regional banks and credit unions compete hard for apartment building loans here, and files generally move more quickly than on the south shore because the insurance question is less severe.
Lafayette and Acadiana
Energy services, healthcare and the university anchor Lafayette, with an economy that still tracks the oil and gas cycle more closely than the rest of the state. Lenders read that as cyclical and will typically look at several years of operating history rather than one strong trailing twelve. Coastal exposure is real here too, though less severe than in the parishes east and south of it.
Shreveport and north Louisiana
A different state entirely from an insurance standpoint. North Louisiana sits far enough inland that wind and flood exposure fall away, which means premiums behave more like the wider Midsouth and the file turns on the rent roll and the building rather than on the binder. Basis per unit is the lowest in Louisiana and going-in yields correspondingly higher, with almost no new construction competing against existing buildings. These are community bank, credit union and agency small-balance markets.
Rent figures above are average asking rents across professionally managed buildings of fifty units and up as of August 2026. Where we do not yet have a dedicated apartment page for a Louisiana city, the link goes to our commercial mortgage page for that market.
What Insurance Does to a Louisiana Apartment Loan
Start here rather than with the rate. Debt service coverage is calculated after operating expenses, so every dollar of premium is a dollar of borrowing capacity. Nationally, multifamily insurance costs rose from roughly $39 per unit per month in 2019 to about $68 by 2024, an increase of around 75% in real terms, and insurance now accounts for closer to 15% of operating expenses than the 8% owners were once used to. Coastal states have carried increases well above that national average. In Louisiana the practical effect is that the insurance line, not the rent line, is usually what decides how large a loan a building will support.
What an underwriter actually looks at. Not an estimate, and not last year’s number. The bound policy in front of them, and specifically: the named-storm or wind deductible and whether it is a flat amount or a percentage of insured value, the flood zone and whether flood is carried separately, the total insured value against replacement cost, and the age and condition of the roof. A percentage wind deductible on a high insured value can represent an enormous retained exposure, and lenders size accordingly.
What moves it in your favor. Documented mitigation is the single most effective lever available to a Louisiana owner. Roof replacement to current standards, opening protection, elevation work and any completed structural upgrades all belong in the file with dates and receipts, because they change what a carrier will write and therefore what a lender will lend. Owners who present a clean loss history alongside the binder are treated very differently from owners who present the binder alone.
Bring it early, not late. The most common way a Louisiana file stalls is a borrower sending the rent roll and operating statements first and the insurance binder three weeks later, after the lender has already sized the loan on an assumption. Send all three together. If your policy is renewing during the loan process, say so up front, because a lender will want to know what the renewal looks like before closing rather than after.
Refinancing a Louisiana Apartment Building
If you were declined or downsized on a Louisiana refinance in the last few years, there is a reasonable chance the problem was the insurance line rather than the property. Files that failed coverage did so because premiums had swallowed the net operating income, not because the rents were bad. That is worth revisiting, particularly if you have renewed since or completed mitigation work.
Send the binder with the rent roll and the trailing twelve. All three together, not in sequence. A renewed policy at a lower premium, or a reduced wind deductible, flows straight into net operating income and therefore into proceeds. It is frequently worth more than any rate improvement available to you.
Then the building. Much of Louisiana’s rental stock is old, and on the south shore lenders price roof age, opening protection and elevation carefully because carriers do. Deferred maintenance is not merely a condition issue here; it feeds directly back into insurability, which feeds back into the loan. Owners with a funded capital plan and completed mitigation consistently out-borrow owners with an identical building and neither.
Then the note. Confirm the maturity date and whether prepayment is yield maintenance, a step-down or open, and start six to nine months ahead of a balloon so there is room to shop more than one lender rather than accept an extension. Cash-out is available on most programs where the equity supports it and coverage holds after the insurance line is properly loaded.
Send the rent roll, the trailing twelve and your current insurance binder and we will underwrite the building the way the lender will, then come back with written options inside 48 hours at no cost. Louisiana apartment loans start at $1,500,000, whether it is a fourteen-unit building in Shreveport or a garden complex outside Baton Rouge.
Louisiana Multifamily Financing
Apartment loan and multifamily loan describe the same debt: financing on a building with five or more residential units. We arrange it throughout Louisiana, from a small uptown walk-up to an institutional garden portfolio, and the terminology has no effect on the underwriting.
Loan size decides who competes. Because Louisiana basis is low, many buildings here sit in the range where regional banks, credit unions and the agency small-balance programs are sharpest, and where local knowledge of which carriers are writing in a given parish 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 frequently 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.
Louisiana multifamily lenders look at the insurance binder before almost anything else, and at the building’s mitigation history right behind it. Have both ready. Send the rent roll, the trailing twelve and the binder, and we will tell you which multifamily lenders are sharpest on your property, and what multifamily financing looks like at that size.
Louisiana Apartment Loan Types We Serve
We arrange financing across Louisiana 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 Louisiana
We arrange apartment loans throughout Louisiana, not only in the metros above. Lake Charles, Monroe, Alexandria, Houma, Slidell and the north shore parishes are financed through the same agency, bank and credit union programs, though wind and flood exposure changes materially as you move south and the insurance binder changes with it.
For larger balances see our Louisiana multifamily loans. For office, retail, industrial and owner-occupied property see Louisiana 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 Louisiana
As a full-service commercial mortgage broker, we arrange Louisiana 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 Louisiana Apartment Loan Quote
No cost, no obligation. Written answers within 48 hours on Louisiana 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
Louisiana City Spotlights: 2026 Apartment Market Notes
Beyond the major metros, we finance apartment buildings across Louisiana. Current market notes for cities where borrowers ask us to lend:
- Baton Rouge: median 1-bedroom rent about $980, up 6.5% year over year (July 2026 rent report), the state’s strongest rent growth.
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 Louisiana market from $1,500,000.