Condo Loans in Florida: How the Building Decides Your Loan

Short answer

A condo loan in Florida is approved twice: once for you and once for the building, and the building review decides whether you can use a conventional, FHA or non-warrantable loan. Lenders check the association's budget, reserves, delinquencies, insurance, litigation and, under Florida's post-Surfside laws, its milestone inspection and structural integrity reserve study (SIRS). This guide explains each check and points you to the detailed page for your situation.

Step one: is the building warrantable?

Every Florida condo purchase starts with one question: will the project meet Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac standards? If yes, it is a warrantable condo and conventional financing is on the table. If not, it is a non-warrantable condo and you need a lender that does its own review.

Fannie Mae's Selling Guide lists the project traits that make a building ineligible. Key ones, as of October 2026:

• Commercial or nonresidential space above 35% of the project or building.
• One entity owning more than 20% of the units in a project of 21 or more units (2 units in smaller projects).
• Hotel or motel operation, including mandatory rental pools. That is the condotel category.
• Pending litigation about safety, structural soundness or habitability.
• Unfunded critical repairs over $10,000 per unit that should be done within 12 months, or a failed mandatory safety inspection.

That path sets your down payment, pricing and lender list. For amounts by loan type, see condo down payment in Miami.

Conventional condo loans: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rules in Florida

Fannie Mae treats Florida differently. For attached units in established Florida projects, its quicker Limited Review caps LTV at 75% for a principal residence and 70% for a second home or investment unit (Selling Guide B4-2.2-04, October 2026), versus 90% and 75% elsewhere. Higher financing needs a full review or a Fannie Mae-approved project.

A full review checks, among other things:

• Reserves: the budget sets aside at least 10% for replacement reserves, or a qualifying reserve study supports a different number.
• Delinquencies: no more than 15% of units are 60 days or more behind on HOA dues, and the same 15% test applies to each special assessment.
• Insurance, litigation and ownership concentration against the ineligible list above.

New and newly converted condo projects with attached units in Florida need Fannie Mae project approval through its PERS process. If you are buying in a new tower, see new construction condo loans.

Freddie Mac's condo FAQ, as of October 2026, also requires a 10% reserve allocation that special assessments cannot replace, and keeps a project that failed a mandatory inspection ineligible until repairs or reports are complete, even if a local authority calls it safe.

FHA condo loans: check the HUD approved list first

An FHA loan allows 3.5% down with a 580+ score, but only in an eligible building. Search the project first on HUD's FHA approved condominium lookup by county, city, ZIP or name. The status must say Approved; Expired, Rejected or Withdrawn do not count.

The FHA condo rules HUD announced in 2019, which took effect October 15, 2019:

• Project approvals last three years before recertification.
• Most approved projects need at least 50% of units occupied by owners.
• Single-unit approval lets FHA insure a unit in a building that is not on the list, capped at 10% of units in projects with 10 or more units, or two units in smaller projects.

The 2026 FHA limit for a 1-unit property in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach is $667,000, per HUD. Above that you are in conventional or jumbo territory.

Weak budgets or open structural repairs can also cost a building its FHA approval.

Florida's condo safety laws: milestone inspections and SIRS

Since the 2021 Surfside collapse, two Florida requirements show up in nearly every condo file. Details are on each linked page.

Milestone inspection (s. 553.899): condo and co-op buildings three or more habitable stories tall must be inspected by December 31 of the year the building turns 30 (the local agency may require it at 25, for example near salt water), then every 10 years. If phase one finds substantial structural deterioration, a phase two inspection follows, and repairs must begin within 365 days after the phase two report reaches the local agency.

SIRS (s. 718.112(2)(g)): the same buildings need a structural integrity reserve study at least every 10 years, covering roof, structure, fireproofing, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing, windows and exterior doors. Existing associations had to finish it by December 31, 2025 (no later than December 31, 2026 if done with a milestone inspection). For budgets adopted on or after December 31, 2024, owners cannot vote to waive or cut those reserves.

What you get as a resale buyer (s. 718.503): the seller must provide, among other documents, the budget and financial statement, the inspector's milestone summary if applicable, and the latest SIRS or a statement that none was done. You then have 7 days, excluding weekends and legal holidays, to cancel after signing and receiving them.

Special assessments, HO-6 insurance and the condo questionnaire

Special assessments. Florida lets associations fund required reserves with dues, special assessments, lines of credit or loans approved by a majority of all voting interests. Lenders review each assessment's purpose, amount and payoff date, and under Fannie Mae's rules one tied to an unfixed critical repair makes the project ineligible. Negotiate who pays an open assessment in your contract.

HO-6 insurance. The association's master policy covers the building. Where it does not cover the interior or improvements of your unit, Fannie Mae requires you to carry an individual policy, usually called an HO-6, with enough coverage to restore the unit to its pre-loss condition. If the building is in a flood zone, your lender will also review flood coverage.

The condo questionnaire. The lender asks the association about budget, reserves, delinquencies, insurance, litigation, commercial space, rentals and structural condition, usually on Fannie Mae's Form 1076. Slow answers delay many Florida condo closings, so find out early who handles them.

When the building does not qualify: non-warrantable and condotel loans

Failing the agency review is not a dead end. Non-QM and portfolio lenders finance many of these units after their own review, usually with more down and different pricing.

• Non-warrantable condos: read our non-warrantable condo financing in Florida guide for why buildings fail and how these lenders underwrite them, then see our non-warrantable condo loans program.
• Condotels: units in hotel-run buildings with front desks and rental programs need a specialty lender. See condotel loans.
• Investors: if the unit will be rented, a DSCR loan can qualify on rent instead of your personal income, in buildings the lender accepts.

How QMS Lending handles Florida condo loans

QMS Lending (NMLS #1781090) is an independent mortgage broker in Miami, FL, with 100+ lenders across conventional, FHA, non-warrantable and condotel programs. We start with the building: HUD status, questionnaire, budget, milestone and SIRS reports. Then we match you to lenders that take that project.

Send us the address and unit number before you sign, and we will tell you which loan types are likely to work. Rates vary daily; call 305-425-1990 for today's pricing, in English or Spanish. Subject to credit approval and project review.