Conventional bank loan feasibility study consultant.

A bank construction loan is repaid at stabilization, either by the same bank's mini-perm loan or by a permanent loan from a life company, a CMBS lender or an agency lender. The construction lender looks at the budget, the construction contract, the lease-up plan and whether the takeout loan is realistic.

Expectations scale with the bank and the deal. Larger banks financing larger projects usually want a standalone study. Community and regional banks often accept the appraisal's market section for a stabilized refinance, but ask for a study for ground-up construction, lease-up bridge or value-add deals.

CMBS loans are made to be sold. A conduit deal pools many loans into one securitization. A single-asset, single-borrower (SASB) deal securitizes one large loan or portfolio on its own.

The rating agencies publish the methods they use to size and stress the loans, and the investor who buys the first-loss piece reviews the pool and can reject loans before pricing. Both test net cash flow, value and debt yield, and both discount projections they cannot support.

Studies are routine for transitional deals (lease-up, value-add, conversion), for specialty asset classes such as hotels and senior housing, and wherever competing supply or tenant rollover is the open question.

Life insurance companies lend from their own balance sheets and usually hold the loan to maturity. Where a CMBS lender sells the credit risk soon after closing, a life company carries it for the whole term, so it looks for durable income, strong tenants and conservative leverage.

Life companies usually ask for a study for construction, lease-up bridge, hotels, senior housing, manufactured housing, student housing and tax-credit affordable housing. For a stabilized income property, the appraisal's market section often carries the market analysis. The section on appraisals below covers when that distinction matters.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy multifamily loans. For 2026, the Federal Housing Finance Agency set their multifamily loan purchase caps at $88 billion for each Enterprise, $176 billion combined. It requires at least 50 percent of their multifamily business to be mission-driven affordable housing, and it excludes loans that finance workforce housing from the 2026 limits. [2]

A stabilized refinance usually needs no standalone study; the lender's review and the appraisal's market section cover it. Construction, lease-up bridge, value-add and affordable or workforce deals usually need one, because demand and achievable rents are the open questions.

HUD insures multifamily loans under the Multifamily Accelerated Processing (MAP) Guide: Section 221(d)(4) for new construction and substantial rehabilitation, and Section 223(f) for refinance or acquisition. Debt service may use no more than 85% of NOI for market-rate projects, a 1.176 DSCR, and 87% or 90% of NOI for qualifying affordable and rent-assisted projects. [1]

The MAP Guide market study must show enough sustainable demand for the new units without harming existing supply, and estimate how many units the market can absorb over a forecast period of typically 3 years. The market study and the appraisal should come from two separate entities. A 223(f) application typically relies on the appraisal's market analysis unless the market is volatile or declining. [1]

Debt funds and bridge lenders finance the period between construction or acquisition and a stabilized permanent loan. They lend on a business plan: renovation, lease-up or repositioning, then a refinance. Many fund their loans through commercial real estate collateralized loan obligations (CRE CLOs), which are rated much like CMBS but allow for transitional properties.

Their review focuses on the as-stabilized value, the capital budget, the lease-up timeline and whether the planned takeout loan is realistic. A study for a bridge loan answers both questions: will the plan work, and will the stabilized property qualify for the permanent lender it is aiming at.

Mezzanine debt and preferred equity fill the gap between the senior loan and the sponsor's equity. Mezzanine is subordinate debt secured by a pledge of the ownership interests, governed by an intercreditor agreement with the senior lender. Preferred equity is an equity position with a preferred return, structured either more like debt (a fixed maturity and current pay) or more like equity.

Senior lenders set their own rules on accepting either layer. For a 504 loan, SOP 50 10 8.1 lets the borrower's contribution be borrowed only if it is subordinate to the third-party loan and the debenture. A feasibility study models the combined cost of capital, shows the cure rights and intercreditor terms where they matter, and stress-tests the refinance risk of the layered stack. [3]