Condotel Financing
The building has a front desk. The loan still exists.
Miami’s skyline is full of towers with rental programs, resort amenities and nightly guests — buildings your bank calls “condotels” right before it declines you. The declining is real. So is a shelf of programs that price these buildings every day, one of which will write the unit as your primary residence.
Who this is built for
Buyers who fell for an amenity building
The tower has a spa, a front desk and voluntary rental management — and the unit you want is a home, not a hotel room. One route treats it exactly that way.
Investors running nightly rentals
A unit in a building built for short stays, financed on the property’s own economics rather than your tax returns.
Second-home buyers who want hotel services
Somewhere you use eight weeks a year that earns its keep the rest — with housekeeping and a rental desk downstairs.
Anyone declined at the eleventh hour
“The appraisal came back condotel” has killed more Miami closings than credit ever has. The fix is starting on the right shelf, not arguing with the wrong one.
Have a building in mind? Send me the address before you write an offer — the tower decides more here than your file does, and that answer takes one call.
Check a building“Unfinanceable” usually means your bank does not do it
A front desk and nightly guests do not end the conversation. Some lenders refuse these outright. Others price them every day.
The folklore says condotels are unfinanceable. The truth has more moving parts:
And one more, quietly: one of the routes is written in-house at my own shop — which matters on the day a file needs a judgment call instead of a checkbox.
| The shelf splits | Some yes, some never | Several programs on my own shelf refuse condotels outright. Several others price them daily. Eligibility is program-by-program — never assume in either direction. |
| Occupancy picks your door | Primary is the rare one | Most routes take condotels as investment property only. At least one writes them as a primary residence — at leverage most people would not guess. |
| Florida costs five points | At several programs | The state you are buying in takes 5% off the maximum at more than one shop, and one family requires full condo review above 70%. Plan the file around it. |
Program availability, occupancy restrictions and geographic adjustments vary by lender and change without notice. Not all buildings or applicants will qualify.
How it actually works
A condotel is a verdict about the building, not your unit. The financing follows the verdict.
The building gets classified first
Front desk or registration, a rental program or management desk, nightly-stay zoning, hotel-style amenities — enough of those and every unit inside is a condotel, no matter how you plan to live in it.
Agency financing exits the conversation
Conventional programs treat condotels as ineligible collateral. That is why the bank that pre-approved you declined after the appraisal — nobody lied; they were on the wrong shelf.
The non-QM shelf prices it
Leverage runs lower than a regular condo and Florida costs an extra margin at several programs — but purchase, refinance and cash-out all exist, documented by income, bank statements or the rent itself.
The building’s paperwork decides before credit does
The condo questionnaire, the HOA budget and the rental-program agreement get underwritten like a borrower. Getting those early is the whole game.
The two routes
Two programs, two entirely different readings of the same tower — one treats it as a home, the other prices it on the rent:
One program’s current matrix — full or alt documentation — takes condotels at every occupancy, including the one nobody expects:
| Occupancy | Maximum loan-to-value | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Primary residence | 85% purchase | Cash-out to 75% — the highest condotel leverage on my shelf |
| Second home | 75% | At a 700 credit score and above |
| Investment | 75% | At 700 and above; 70% from 680 to 699 |
Read that first row the way a Miami buyer should: eighty-five percent leverage on a unit your bank already declined, documented with full paperwork or bank statements, as the place you actually live. A companion owner-occupied program from the same family corroborates the ceiling and carries condotel loans to two and a half million. Below 680 this door narrows quickly — and the building still has to pass its own underwriting regardless of yours. Two things sit just outside this grid and are worth knowing: a different program prints the same eighty-five on the first lien but allows ninety percent combined once a second lien is added,† and condotel availability is not national — including one lender that takes them in New York.‡
Representative of one program family’s matrices: the occupancy grid effective 08/03/2026, and its owner-occupied companion effective 06/09/2026 for the $2.5 million condotel ceiling. Maximum loan-to-value, credit score, occupancy and loan amount are separate limits shown only in combinations that appear in the source documents. Building approval is a separate underwriting. Not all applicants or properties will qualify.
A separate investor program takes condotels on the property’s own coverage ratio. Its caps, exactly as published:
| Purpose | Maximum loan-to-value | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase | 75% | Minimum coverage ratio 1.00 — the rent must carry the payment |
| Rate-and-term refinance | 70% | Same coverage floor |
| Cash-out refinance | 65% | Same coverage floor |
And the Florida line, in their own arithmetic: subtract five points from every figure above, because the property is here. That adjustment is not this program being difficult — a third program’s investor matrix lands within a point of the same caps with a one-million-dollar ceiling on condotel loans, a fourth allows condotels inside its income-documented program on investment terms only, and one more family applies the identical minus-five treatment while requiring full condo review above 70% in Florida. When five shops independently price the same risk the same way, that is not an overlay. That is the market telling you what the building is.
Representative of a separate program’s summary version 08/17/2026; corroborating figures from another program’s matrix effective 07/23/2026, a further program’s guidelines revision 06/01/2026, and one program family’s matrices revisions 02/09/2026–06/16/2026, each cited to its own document. Figures from different programs never combine. Coverage-ratio programs are business-purpose loans on investment property. Not all applicants or properties will qualify.
Financing on the rent itself? The DSCR page has the full arithmetic →
† From a separate program’s published caps effective 08/03/2026: on a primary-residence condotel it prints a maximum of 85% on the first lien and 90% COMBINED once a second lien sits behind it, and 75% on a second home or an investment property. Combined figures are the two liens added together and measured against value; the second lien is its own loan with its own terms. Figures from different programs never combine.
‡ Where these loans are available differs by lender and is worth settling before you fall in love with a unit. One program on my shelf that takes condotels is licensed in six states — New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Florida and Connecticut — and takes them on investment property only. I am not quoting its leverage here: its published caps say condotel is investment-only without stating a reduction, and I will not turn the absence of a stated cut into a number. Ask me and I will confirm it before you write an offer.
The fine print that decides condotel files
What to gather before we talk
The building’s paperwork
Condo questionnaire, HOA budget, master insurance certificate, and the rental-program agreement if one exists. These decide the file before your credit does.
Your income, the way it actually documents
Full doc, bank statements, or — on the investor routes — the unit’s rent projection or booking history. Every documentation family on this site applies here.
The appraisal, unprejudged
Do not fight the condotel classification; finance it. Arguing a building into “regular condo” after the appraisal wastes the weeks that kill contracts.
The normal file
Photo ID, reserves appropriate to loan size, housing history. The unusual part is the building, not you.
Want the exact list for your file before you ever apply? Build your document checklist — the list changes with your answers, printable and yours to keep.
Where it wins — and the honest limits
Told straight, because this page is useless otherwise.
Nothing about a rental program or a front desk makes a building unfinanceable. It makes it unfinanceable at the bank that told you so.
One route underwrites it as a place you live, the other on what the unit earns. The same address can qualify two entirely different ways — and the better one is worth finding.
Including the one nobody expects: these are not investor-only programs, and the primary-residence door is real.
One of the routes is written in-house, which matters on the day a building needs a human decision instead of a checkbox.
The 85% route exists and is real — and it is one program, with its own credit floor and building standards. If that door closes on your file, the next-best occupancy answer looks meaningfully different.
Plan equity accordingly, and remember Florida’s five-point haircut at several shops before you write the offer.
Litigation, thin reserves, an insurance gap, a mandatory rental pool with hostile terms — none of it is about you, all of it is underwritten. I read the questionnaire before you spend on an appraisal.
The same honest line as every page in this family: unusual collateral costs more. What you buy is a closing that happens.
Send me the building before you fall in love with the unit
Forward the listing and, if you have it, the condo questionnaire — I will tell you which doors that building can walk through and at what leverage, before you spend a dollar on inspections. Ten minutes now beats a reclassified appraisal in week three.
Questions people actually ask
Open the full Q&A — the building, the questionnaire, and the fine points ▾
+What exactly makes a building a “condotel”?
A cluster of features, judged together: a front desk or registration, a rental program or management desk, zoning that permits nightly stays, hotel-style amenities, and sometimes units without full kitchens. Your unit can be a normal two-bedroom you live in year-round — if the building reads as a hotel, every unit in it finances as a condotel.
+Can a condotel really be my primary residence?
At one program on my shelf, yes — at leverage that beats what most buyers expect on ordinary condos, with full-doc or bank-statement income. It is one program, not a market: its credit floor and the building’s own approval still decide. Everywhere else, expect investment-only treatment.
+Why did my bank approve me and then decline after the appraisal?
Because the appraisal reclassified the building. Conventional programs treat condotels as ineligible collateral, so the decline was automatic no matter how strong you were. Nothing about you changed; the shelf did. Starting on the non-QM shelf removes that ambush entirely.
+Can the nightly rental income qualify the loan?
On the investor routes, the property’s coverage ratio carries the file — and short-term income is read carefully: documented booking history is worth materially more than a projection, and several programs cap leverage lower on short-stay income. The DSCR page covers that arithmetic in full.
+I buy with an ITIN. Is a condotel out of reach?
No — the ITIN investor program on this shelf accepts condotels with the same five-point reduction it applies for everyone. The combination is narrower than either feature alone, but it exists, and in this market it comes up constantly.
+Why is Florida penalized five points?
Concentration and insurance. Several programs apply a statewide reduction on condo-family collateral, and at least one requires full condo review above 70% here. It is priced-in caution, not a prohibition — but it belongs in your offer math from day one.
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Loan programs, explained honestly
Programs described are offered through third-party lenders, are subject to lender approval, full underwriting and building-level project review, and change without notice. Leverage caps, credit minimums, occupancy restrictions, coverage-ratio floors, geographic adjustments and loan amounts are separate limits, vary by lender and program, and are never available in combination across programs. Figures reflect five different programs’ current materials, each cited beside the table or section it supports. Building eligibility is determined per project and is not guaranteed by any statement on this page. Not all applicants or properties will qualify. This is not a commitment to lend. Equal Housing Opportunity.