Commercial Mortgage - Underwriting Standards

Underwriting Standards

Commercial Mortgage loans are almost always designed to be underwritten based entirely on the attributes of the property being mortgaged, as opposed to the credit attributes of the borrower. To facilitate this, many times lenders require the property to be owned by a single asset entity such as a corporation or an LLC created specifically to own just the subject property. This allows the lender to foreclose on the property in the event of default even if the borrower went into bankruptcy (the entity is known as "bankruptcy remote"). In a normal residential mortgage, a lender would have a difficult time selling a property if the bankruptcy court case is still pending.

Lenders usually also require a minimum debt service coverage ratio which typically ranges from 1.1 to 1.4; the ratio is net cash flow (the income the property produces) over the debt service (mortgage payment). As an example if the owner of a shopping mall receives $300,000 per month from tenants, pays $50,000 per month in expenses, a lender will typically not give a loan that requires monthly payments above $227,273 (($300,000-$50,000)/1.1)), a 1.1 debt cover.

Lenders also look at Loan to value (LTV). LTV is a mathematical calculation which expresses the amount of a mortgage as a percentage of the total appraised value. For instance, if a borrower wants $6,000,000 to purchase an office worth $10,000,000, the LTV ratio is $6,000,000/$10,000,000 or 60%. Commercial mortgage LTV's are typically between 55% and 70%, unlike residential mortgages which are typically 80% or above.