Florida Condo Financing Rules Changed in 2026: What Buyers Need to Know
On August 3, 2026, Fannie Mae retired Limited Review and Freddie Mac retired Streamlined Review. The change is procedural rather than punitive — but it moves the question a Florida condo buyer has to answer from am I financeable? to is the building financeable?
This is buyer research, not a lender advertisement. It explains what the agencies actually changed, what they did not, where Florida condominium law is a separate framework entirely, and what to request from an association before your financing contingency expires.
Editorial illustration of Florida condominium housing; not a specific condominium project.
Two expedited review routes closed. The underlying eligibility rules did not become universal.
For years, many established condominium projects could be financed through an abbreviated project review. Fannie Mae called its version Limited Review; Freddie Mac called its version Streamlined Review. Both are now retired. Established projects that would previously have taken the short route generally move to the agency’s standard project review instead — unless the transaction qualifies for a waiver or exemption, which both agencies retained and, for small projects, expanded.
The practical consequence is documentary. A lender now needs more information about the project in more transactions: association financials, reserve funding, insurance, delinquency, and evidence about the building’s condition and repair history. That takes time to assemble, and much of it lives with a property manager or board rather than with the seller.
This is why a financially strong buyer can hit a wall. Your credit, income, down payment and preapproval speak to you. Project review speaks to the building. They are assessed separately, and a preapproval issued before anyone looked at the association is not a statement about the association.
Three things are worth saying plainly at the outset, because the loudest versions of this story get all three wrong.
The distinction the whole page rests on
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rules govern whether a lender can sell your loan to those two agencies. Florida condominium law governs what an association must do. A building can be fully compliant with Florida law and still fail an agency project review; a loan can satisfy agency standards without that saying anything about the association’s statutory compliance. Neither substitutes for the other, and conflating them is the single most common error in coverage of this subject.
Seven points a Florida condo buyer should carry into the next conversation with a lender.
The expedited routes closed — not the door
Limited Review and Streamlined Review ended for applicable applications on August 3, 2026. Both agencies kept alternative pathways, and both expanded them for qualifying 2–10-unit projects in March 2026.
More project documentation may matter
Where the short route is gone, the standard review requires a fuller picture of the association: budget, reserves, insurance, delinquency, litigation, condition and repair records. Expect that to take longer to assemble.
Reserve-study methodology tightened
Where a reserve study is used instead of the percentage test, the budget must fund the study’s highest recommended allocation. A low-end “baseline” recommendation is no longer accepted.
Structural condition remains the sharp edge
Where repairs affect safety, soundness, structural integrity or habitability, the agencies’ standards focus on whether the work is completed — not on whether it has been funded.
A special assessment is not a verdict
Assessments are fact-specific. Purpose, repair status and delinquency all matter. Neither “there is an assessment” nor “the assessment is fully funded” settles the question on its own.
Florida law and agency rules are different frameworks
Milestone inspections and Structural Integrity Reserve Studies are Florida statutory requirements that predate these changes. They are relevant to a lender’s review, but they are not agency rules and satisfying one does not satisfy the other.
The 15% change is a 2027 event
The reserve-budget threshold rises from 10% to 15% for applicable applications beginning January 4, 2027. Anything describing 15% as already in force in August 2026 is wrong, and the two dates should not be merged.
And one thing to do
Ask your lender, in writing, which channel your loan is intended for: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, VA, jumbo or portfolio. That single answer determines which of these rules apply to you at all.
The 2026–2027 sequence, with each change attributed to the framework it came from.
Three of these dates are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac policy. One is Florida law. They are frequently reported as though they were a single regulatory event, which is how buyers end up believing that Florida raised condominium reserves to 15% — something that did not happen.
| Date | Change | Rule category | Practical significance for a buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 18, 2026 | Fannie Mae expanded its Waiver of Project Review; Freddie Mac expanded Exempt From Review to qualifying new and established condominium projects with 2–10 units. | Agency project-review optionsFannie Mae & Freddie Mac | A small building may have a route that avoids the ordinary standard review. Eligibility remains conditional — a 2–10-unit project is not automatically exempt. |
| March 18, 2026 | Fannie Mae ended the special requirement for attached Florida new or newly converted condominium projects to obtain Fannie Mae PERS approval. Freddie Mac ended the need to rely on Fannie Mae’s “Approved by Fannie Mae” status within its Florida new-project framework. | Agency Florida-specific processFannie Mae & Freddie Mac | This may relieve a Florida new-project approval bottleneck. It does not remove the applicable substantive eligibility, insurance, legal-document, completion or safety requirements. |
| March 18, 2026 | Fannie Mae removed its applicable established-project investment-property concentration restriction. Freddie Mac retired its 50% owner-occupancy requirement for established projects. | Agency established-project eligibilityFannie Mae & Freddie Mac | Some investor-heavy established projects may have a clearer path. The change does not apply identically to new projects, and it does not override repair, reserve, insurance, litigation or delinquency criteria. |
| August 3, 2026 | Fannie Mae Limited Review is retired. Established projects formerly eligible for Limited Review must generally receive Full Review or qualify for a Waiver of Project Review. | Agency review routeFannie Mae | Lenders need more project information for many established-project loans — particularly association financials, reserve information, insurance, maintenance and repair records, and evidence of project condition. |
| August 3, 2026 | Freddie Mac Streamlined Review is retired. Established projects must generally receive the Established Condominium Project review or qualify as Exempt From Review. | Agency review routeFreddie Mac | The same broad effect: fewer streamlined routes, and potentially more documentation, more underwriting time and more project-level scrutiny. |
| August 3, 2026 | The reserve-study exception tightened. Baseline reserve funding is no longer accepted; the budget must include the reserve study’s highest recommended allocation. | Agency reserve standardFannie Mae & Freddie Mac | A project cannot rely on a low-end “baseline” recommendation when it is using a reserve study rather than the percentage-based reserve standard. |
| December 31, 2026 | Certain Florida associations required to complete a milestone inspection by this date may complete their Structural Integrity Reserve Study concurrently, but no later than this date. | Florida statutory requirementFlorida law | A buyer may encounter buildings completing statutory inspection and reserve-study work during 2026, which can produce repair recommendations, reserve-budget changes or assessments while a transaction is live. |
| January 4, 2027 | The applicable replacement-reserve budget allocation increases from 10% to 15% of annual budgeted assessment income. | Agency reserve standardFannie Mae & Freddie Mac | A prospective project-review budgeting standard. It is not a Florida-law rule requiring every association to hold cash equal to 15% of its annual budget. |
A note on wording that matters more than it looks: Fannie Mae describes the August 3 changes by reference to loan application dates, while Freddie Mac refers to Mortgages with Application Received Dates. The primary sources do not resolve how a file with several application milestones, a reissued application or a changed loan product should be treated. We have preserved each agency’s terminology rather than merging them into one invented standard, and if your file sits near the boundary, that is a question for your lender on your specific transaction.
Parallel changes, different vocabularies. The terminology is not interchangeable.
The two agencies moved in the same direction, but they run separate Guides with separate terms and separate pathways. “Full Review” is Fannie Mae’s label; using it for Freddie Mac is a common and consequential slip, because Freddie Mac’s standard route has its own name and its own document expectations. Which agency your loan is intended for is therefore a practical question, not a technicality.
| Topic | Fannie Mae | Freddie Mac | What it means for a buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retired review route | Limited Review | Streamlined Review | Both ended for the specified post-August 3 applications. Do not summarise this as “all condos now require Full Review” — Freddie Mac uses a different name, and both agencies retain alternative paths. |
| Standard established-project route after retirement | Full Review | Established Condominium Project review | The document set and process can differ by agency and by lender implementation. Identify the intended investor early rather than after the appraisal. |
| Alternate route | Waiver of Project Review | Exempt From Review | Both broadened the 2–10-unit pathway in March 2026, subject to conditions. The two terms are not synonyms and should not be used interchangeably. |
| 5–10-unit projects in a master association | The expanded waiver carries restrictions where a 5–10-unit project forms part of a master association or larger development. | The expanded exemption carries comparable limitations for certain 5–10-unit master-association projects. | Unit count alone does not establish eligibility. Ask whether the building is part of a master association or a larger development before assuming relief applies. |
| Reserve-study alternative | Rejects baseline methodology; requires funding at the study’s highest reserve recommendation. | Same core change; the agency’s FAQ describes using the study’s highest recommendation, such as a full-funding recommendation. | A reserve study can still be used, but the lender must test the association’s actual adopted budget against the study’s highest recommendation — not against a convenient scenario inside it. |
| Percentage reserve test | 15% of annual budgeted assessment income, for applicable applications from January 4, 2027. | Equivalent 15% standard from January 4, 2027. | This is an annual budget-allocation test. It is not a mandated 15%-of-budget cash balance, and it is not in force in August 2026. |
| Florida new and newly converted attached projects | Mandatory PERS approval retired. | The Florida new-project process no longer depends on Fannie Mae “Approved by Fannie Mae” status. | An access and process change — not a blanket approval, and not the elimination of lender project review. |
| Established-project owner occupancy | Removed its applicable established-project investment-property concentration restriction. | Removed the established-project 50% owner-occupancy requirement, while retaining new-project occupancy requirements. | This is not a universal end to owner-occupancy or investor-concentration rules. The new-project rules remain material, particularly in Freddie Mac’s framework. |
| Waiver for a reserve shortfall | The primary sources reviewed do not establish an equivalent named Fannie Mae waiver specifically for an established project’s reserve shortfall. | Freddie Mac identifies a Project Waiver Request framework for certain established projects that do not meet the reserve requirement. | Do not assume a Fannie Mae reserve shortage has the same waiver route as Freddie Mac’s. And a waiver request is a request — not an approval. |
Florida condominium law and agency project standards answer different questions.
Florida’s milestone-inspection and Structural Integrity Reserve Study requirements were enacted as building-safety law. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac project standards exist so that lenders know which mortgages the agencies will buy. The two frameworks touch the same documents and the same buildings, which is precisely why they are so often merged — and why doing so produces wrong conclusions in both directions.
| Topic | Florida condominium law | Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac | Buyer implication |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who is governed | Condominium associations, unit owners, developers and certain sellers. | Lenders and sellers delivering mortgages to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. | A project can comply with Florida law and still fail agency delivery standards. Conversely, an agency-eligible loan says nothing about the association’s statutory compliance. |
| Milestone inspections | Generally applies to condominium and cooperative buildings of three or more habitable stories at 30 years — or at 25 years where the local enforcement agency has adopted the earlier trigger based on local circumstances. | Lenders must assess available project-condition information and apply ineligibility rules for critical repairs and unsafe conditions. | Florida law establishes when an inspection is required. The agencies decide whether the resulting condition, repair status and documentation permit mortgage delivery. |
| Structural Integrity Reserve Study | Generally required at least every 10 years for residential condominium buildings of three or more habitable stories. | Agency reserve-study rules govern whether a lender may use a study as an alternative to the percentage reserve-budget test. | A SIRS and an agency-acceptable reserve study can overlap, but no primary source states that every SIRS automatically satisfies each agency’s reserve-study requirements. |
| Reserve funding | Requires statutory reserve accounts and SIRS-related reserve funding for covered associations, subject to statutory exceptions and timing provisions. | The 2027 rule requires a 15% annual budgeted-assessment-income allocation in the applicable review, unless a compliant reserve-study alternative applies. | Do not conflate Florida’s component-based statutory reserves with the agencies’ percentage-of-budget eligibility test. They are measured differently and serve different purposes. |
| Special assessments | Regulates association budgeting, assessments, records and disclosures. | An assessment may fund repairs but does not itself cure a project with critical repairs. Regular-assessment and special-assessment delinquencies are relevant separately under project standards. | “The assessment is funded” is not a synonym for “the project is financeable.” |
| Buyer disclosure | Resale disclosures can include milestone-inspection, turnover-inspection and SIRS information where applicable. | Agency guidelines address lender documentation and delivery eligibility, not the full scope of a seller’s disclosure obligations. | Obtain the statutory disclosures and the lender-requested project documents. Neither set replaces the other, and the lender’s list is not a diligence plan. |
Say this out loud before you rely on either one
Florida statutory compliance does not automatically establish agency eligibility. Agency eligibility does not replace Florida statutory compliance. Two different bodies wrote these rules for two different purposes, and a building has to be looked at through both lenses.
You can be approved and the building can still be the problem.
Mortgage underwriting on a condominium runs on two tracks. One examines the borrower. The other examines the project. A buyer with excellent credit, sufficient income, an adequate down payment and a full preapproval can still encounter a financing problem, because the second track was never about them.
None of what follows means a loan will be denied. It means the lender has a second set of questions to answer, and the answers come from an association rather than from you.
Project review
Which route applies — a standard review, or a waiver or exemption — and what that route requires the lender to collect and evaluate.
Association financials
The adopted operating budget, how it is funded, and whether the numbers on the page match the building’s actual obligations.
Reserves
Either the percentage budget-allocation test or a compliant reserve-study alternative funded at the study’s highest recommendation.
Repairs and condition
Available inspection and engineering information, and whether any identified work affects safety, soundness, structural integrity or habitability.
Insurance
Master policy coverage, deductibles, and wind and flood coverage where applicable — a live constraint in coastal Florida quite apart from these changes.
Delinquencies
How many owners are behind, and on what. Regular-assessment and special-assessment delinquency are treated separately under the project standards.
What this section is not saying
It is not saying that any of these produce automatic denial. Each is an input to a review that is conducted building by building, lender by lender and loan program by loan program. The reason to know the list is timing: every item on it takes days or weeks to obtain from a property manager, and a 30-day financing contingency is not a generous window in which to start asking.
Deferred maintenance is a financing question, not only a construction one.
Project-condition review is where the 2026 changes bite hardest, because the retired expedited routes were precisely the ones that asked the fewest questions about a building’s physical state. Under the standard routes, lenders are expected to evaluate available inspection and condition information and to apply the agencies’ ineligibility rules for critical repairs and unsafe conditions.
What lenders look at. Structural, mechanical, engineering, building-envelope, roof, electrical, plumbing, elevator and fire and life-safety reports. The agencies’ project standards treat reports from roughly the last three years as material to lender review, which is a useful benchmark for what to request even before a lender asks.
The critical-repair concept. Where work affects safety, soundness, structural integrity or habitability, the agency materials indicate that repairs must be completed — not merely financed, budgeted, contracted or scheduled. This is the single most important asymmetry in the entire subject, and it is where buyers most often assume they are further along than they are.
Why funding is not completion. A board can approve a repair, levy an assessment, collect it in full, sign a contractor and publish a schedule, and the physical condition of the building on the day of closing is unchanged. Money in an account is evidence of intent. The agencies’ standards, on this point, are interested in the building.
What we will not do, and what you should be wary of anyone doing
We will not tell you whether a particular repair, report item, roof condition or deferred-maintenance line is “critical.” That classification is fact-dependent and requires project-specific engineering documentation and the lender’s own analysis. Any article, agent or seller who applies that label to a specific building without both is guessing — and the guess cuts in both directions, since calling something critical when it is not can cost a buyer a house they could have bought.
The 15% figure is real, it is a 2027 change, and it does not mean what most people think.
There are two ways a project can satisfy the agencies’ reserve criterion in the applicable review: a percentage-of-budget test, or a reserve study. Both changed in 2026–2027, in different ways and on different dates, and the resulting confusion has produced some genuinely alarming and entirely false claims about what Florida associations are now required to hold in the bank.
15% does not mean the association must have 15% of its annual budget sitting in a bank account
The agency standard concerns the annual budget allocation for replacement reserves — how much of budgeted assessment income the adopted budget directs to reserves — not a required cash balance, and not a percentage of the building’s replacement cost. An association can hold a substantial reserve balance and still fail the allocation test; another can pass the allocation test with a modest balance. If someone tells you a Florida association is now legally obliged to hold 15% of its budget in cash, they have merged two different frameworks and got both wrong.
One further clarification, because it is the boundary the primary sources genuinely do not settle: the 15% figure is supported as an annual budget-allocation standard for the applicable agency condominium project review. It does not follow that every agency-financed Florida condominium, on every review route, must independently satisfy that test in the same manner. We have deliberately not resolved that ambiguity, because the source material does not.
An assessment is a fact to investigate, not a verdict to accept.
The two most common reactions to a special assessment are both wrong. One is that any assessment makes a building unfinanceable. The other is that a fully funded assessment resolves the matter. What actually determines the outcome is what the assessment is for, what physical state the underlying work is in, and how well it is being collected.
Purpose
An assessment funding a cosmetic or amenity project sits in a different analytical place from one funding structural work identified by an engineer. The document to read is the engineering report behind it, not the assessment notice.
Repair status
Where the work relates to safety, soundness, structural integrity or habitability, the agency standards look for completion. Not started, in progress and complete are three materially different answers.
Delinquency
The project standards treat regular-assessment delinquency and special-assessment delinquency separately. A building where a meaningful share of owners are not paying the assessment is telling the lender something.
Documentation
Total amount, allocation per unit, due dates, collection status, purpose and expected completion date — in writing. “It’s about $18,000 a unit, I think” is not a diligence answer.
A worked example: two assessments, two very different files
Building A levied a $12,000-per-unit assessment last year to replace lobby finishes, corridor carpet and the pool deck furniture. The work is finished, the contractor has been paid, permits closed where required, and collection is at 97%. This is an expense a buyer should price into the purchase — but as a project-review matter, there is a completed scope, closed documentation and a healthy collection record.
Building B levied the same $12,000 per unit after an engineering report identified concrete and post-tension work on three elevations. The assessment is fully collected. No work has started; the contractor is scheduled for next spring. Whether that scope falls into the critical-repair category is a determination for the engineer’s documentation and the lender’s review, not for us — but the funding of the assessment does not by itself answer it, and a buyer who treats “fully funded” as the end of the inquiry has stopped one question too early.
Both buildings are hypothetical composites written to illustrate the distinction. They are not descriptions of any real association, and no conclusion about any specific building should be drawn from them.
Florida’s building-safety framework, and why a lender reads it.
These are Florida statutory requirements. They were not created by the 2026 agency changes, they are not agency rules, and they apply to associations whether or not a single mortgage is ever written in the building. They matter here because the reports they generate are often the best available evidence of a building’s condition — which is exactly what a standard project review now needs.
Why these reports are financing-relevant. Not because a statute says so, but because they contain the condition information a lender is expected to assess. An inspection that identifies work needing attention creates a documentation trail: what was found, what was recommended, what the board resolved, what was funded, what was permitted and what was completed. That trail is what a project review reads.
What a missing report does and does not prove. If an association has not yet delivered a completed milestone inspection, that absence does not by itself establish agency ineligibility in the primary sources. What it does create is documentation risk, timing risk, disclosure risk and the possibility of repair findings that do not exist yet on paper. A building without a completed report is not a building that has passed — it is a building that has not been measured.
This section describes the statutory framework at a level useful to a buyer. It is not a complete statement of Florida condominium law, which contains exceptions, phase-in provisions and definitional detail beyond the scope of a buyer article. Association-specific and contract-specific questions should be directed to qualified Florida counsel.
The document request, and when to make it.
This is the practical core of the page. Request these materials before your financing and inspection contingencies expire — which in practice means requesting them in the first days of the contract, not the last. This is recommended buyer diligence. It is not a substitute for lender underwriting, legal advice, engineering advice or statutory disclosure review.
Operating budget, current and prior year
Both years, adopted rather than draft. The comparison is often more informative than either document alone.
Reserve schedule, reserve study and all updates
The complete study, not a summary or an executive page.
Ask specifically: does the adopted budget fund the reserve study’s highest recommendation? That is the question a lender using the reserve-study route has to answer.Structural Integrity Reserve Study
Where the building is covered by the requirement. Ask whether it is complete, in progress or not yet commissioned, and on what date it was or will be delivered.
Milestone inspection report and status
The most recent report, plus written confirmation of whether an inspection is due, in progress or completed — and under which trigger the building falls.
Structural and engineering reports from the last three years
Structural, mechanical, engineering, building-envelope, roof, electrical, plumbing, elevator and fire and life-safety. The agency project standards treat this period as material to lender review.
Board minutes for at least the last twelve months
Including any discussion of deferred maintenance, inspections, repair proposals, insurance disputes, association loans, assessments and litigation.
Minutes are where a problem usually appears first — months before it reaches a budget, a disclosure or an assessment notice.Every special assessment, in writing
Current, approved, proposed or contemplated. Total amount, allocation per unit, due dates, collection status, purpose and expected completion date.
Repair contracts, permits and completion evidence
Contracts, permits, engineer certifications, completion certificates and warranties for any structural or safety-related work. Completion evidence is the document that matters most and is offered least often.
Master insurance declarations and claim history
Current declarations, deductibles, flood and wind coverage where applicable, claim history, and any evidence of nonrenewal or a coverage gap.
Assessment delinquency information
For regular assessments and special assessments separately, because the relevant project standards treat them separately.
Project structure facts
Unit count, project type, whether the building forms part of a master association or larger development, and the owner-occupancy and investor mix. These facts can determine whether a waiver or exemption is even available.
Your lender’s intended channel, in writing
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, portfolio, FHA, VA, jumbo or another program. Agency rules are not universal lender rules, and this answer determines which of the standards on this page apply to your transaction at all.
Ask in the same message what project documentation the lender expects to require, and by when.Do not wait until the final week of financing to investigate the project
Every item above has to come from a board or a property manager, on their timetable rather than yours. Requests that begin in week one are routine; the same requests in the last week of a contingency period are an emergency, and an emergency is a poor position from which to renegotiate, extend or walk away.
How the analysis actually runs, on five buildings you could plausibly be looking at.
These are illustrative situations, not descriptions of real associations, and none of them produces a guaranteed outcome. They are here because the shape of the reasoning is more useful than a rule, and because each one contains a trap that a confident summary would walk straight into.
The 48-unit Miami Beach building with a new structural assessment
Scenario 01 · August 2026- Likely analysis
- The project cannot be assumed financeable merely because the assessment is approved or fully funded. The lender must determine whether the work is a critical repair affecting safety, soundness, structural integrity or habitability — and the agency materials indicate critical repairs must be completed, not merely financed.
- What to request
- The engineer’s report, the repair scope, permits, the contractor’s schedule, completion evidence for any finished phases, and the lender’s decision on the project as early as possible.
- The trap
- Reading “the assessment is fully collected” as though it were “the repair is done.” It is not the same fact and it does not carry the same weight.
The eight-unit Gulf Coast condominium
Scenario 02 · September 2026- Likely analysis
- The project may be eligible for Fannie Mae’s Waiver of Project Review or Freddie Mac’s Exempt From Review under the March 2026 expansion. Unit count alone is not sufficient: the lender must confirm the applicable transaction, project and association conditions.
- What to request
- Written confirmation of the project’s structure — in particular whether it forms part of a larger development or master association, which can change the availability of the 5–10-unit relief.
- The trap
- Treating “small building” as a synonym for “exempt.” The expanded pathway is conditional, and the master-association question is the one most often skipped.
The 1970s high-rise awaiting its milestone inspection
Scenario 03 · Statutory timing- Likely analysis
- Florida’s milestone-inspection requirement and the association’s deadline are assessed independently of mortgage eligibility. The absence of a completed report does not by itself establish agency ineligibility in the primary sources — but it raises documentation, timing, disclosure and potential-repair risk.
- What to request
- The inspection status in writing, the deadline the association is working to, which trigger applies in that jurisdiction, and the engineer’s engagement date where one has been retained.
- The trap
- Describing the building as “passed” or “financeable” before the report exists and the lender has completed a project review. Neither statement can be made yet.
The investor-heavy Orlando established project
Scenario 04 · Owner occupancy- Likely analysis
- The March 2026 updates may help: Fannie Mae removed an applicable established-project investor-concentration restriction, and Freddie Mac retired its established-project 50% owner-occupancy requirement. That is not a blanket approval — reserve funding, delinquency, insurance, repair and other project requirements still apply, and the relevant new-project occupancy rule is different.
- What to request
- The current owner-occupancy and investor mix, delinquency figures, and confirmation from the lender that the project is being reviewed as an established rather than a new project.
- The trap
- Reading the March change as “occupancy rules are gone.” They were relaxed for established projects in specified respects. New-project requirements remain material.
The January 2027 buyer relying on a reserve study
Scenario 05 · After the threshold change- Likely analysis
- The lender cannot rely on the former 10% percentage standard for an applicable application on that date. A reserve-study route may still be possible, but the adopted budget must fund the study’s highest recommended allocation rather than a lower baseline scenario.
- What to request
- The complete reserve study — not a summary — and the adopted budget, so the two can be compared line against line before the contingency period runs.
- The trap
- Assuming a building that comfortably satisfied the test in December 2026 automatically satisfies it in January 2027. The threshold moved; the budget may not have.
The short version, with the corrections that matter most.
If you read only one section, read this one. The right-hand column exists because the false claims in circulation are doing more damage to Florida buyers than the actual rule changes are.
Six things that are genuinely different
- Expedited established-project review methods ended. Fannie Mae Limited Review and Freddie Mac Streamlined Review are no longer available for the specified August 2026 applications.
- Small projects gained an expanded potential exemption. Certain 2–10-unit new and established projects may use Fannie Mae’s Waiver of Project Review or Freddie Mac’s Exempt From Review framework where every applicable condition is met.
- Reserve-study testing became stricter on August 3. The budget must use the study’s highest recommended reserve allocation; baseline funding is not acceptable.
- The applicable budgeted-reserve allocation rises to 15% on January 4, 2027. The policy applies to the relevant agency project-review standards, not to every Florida association as a standalone legal mandate.
- Fannie Mae’s special Florida new-project PERS requirement was retired. Freddie Mac’s reciprocal Florida new-project process changed correspondingly.
- Certain established-project investor and owner-occupancy constraints were relaxed. New-project restrictions remain relevant, especially in Freddie Mac’s framework.
Five claims that are not supported
- Florida did not create the 15% rule. It is a Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac project-review criterion effective in 2027, not a Chapter 718 percentage requirement.
- The August change did not create Florida milestone inspections or SIRS. Those are Florida statutory requirements that predate the 2026 agency review-route changes.
- A special assessment is not an eligibility cure. The source materials continue to distinguish a project’s repair condition from the method used to fund repairs.
- No source establishes that all Florida condo loans, all conventional loans or all condo purchases require Full Review after August 3. The rules are specific to agency-eligible delivery channels and retain waiver and exemption pathways.
- No source establishes that every old, coastal or assessed condominium is ineligible. Eligibility turns on facts — project type, review route, condition, repairs, financials, reserves, insurance, and lender or investor requirements.
One change, one date, and no ambiguity about the timing.
This section exists because the 15% figure has been reported so widely as a current requirement that it is worth stating the timing in as many unmistakable ways as the language allows.
January 4, 2027
For applicable applications beginning January 4, 2027, the replacement-reserve budget allocation in the agencies’ percentage test increases from 10% to 15% of annual budgeted assessment income.
It is not in effect now. As of today, the applicable threshold in that test is 10%. The August 3, 2026 changes and the January 4, 2027 change are two separate events with two separate effective dates and should never be described as one.
It is an allocation standard, not a cash requirement. It concerns how much of budgeted assessment income the adopted budget directs to replacement reserves.
It is agency policy, not Florida law. No Florida statute was amended to introduce it.
What a buyer should do about it between now and then
If you are buying a condominium in the second half of 2026 and financing through an agency channel, the 10% threshold is what applies to your application. If you are buying in early 2027, or if your transaction might slip into 2027, the budget an association adopts for that year becomes materially more interesting — associations typically adopt budgets in the autumn, so the relevant document may already exist by the time you are reading this.
The practical question to put to a board or manager is short: what percentage of annual budgeted assessment income does the adopted budget allocate to replacement reserves, and has the board considered the change taking effect on January 4, 2027? A board that has thought about it will answer quickly. A board that has not is itself a useful piece of information.
Current as of August 7, 2026
The order in which the questions actually get answered.
This is a sequence for organising your diligence, not a qualification test. It does not produce a yes or a no, because nothing outside a specific lender’s review of a specific building can. What it does produce is a documented picture, early enough to act on.
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Ask your lender
What loan channel is being used?
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA, VA, jumbo or portfolio. Everything downstream depends on this answer, and the agency rules described on this page govern only the first two.
If the channel is not an agency channel, the rest of this flow still has diligence value — but the specific standards described here are not the ones being applied. -
Ask your lender
Does project review apply, and which route?
For an established project on an agency channel after August 3, 2026, the standard route is Fannie Mae’s Full Review or Freddie Mac’s Established Condominium Project review.
Preserve the agency’s own terminology in writing. It determines which document set you are about to be asked for. -
Ask your lender
Is a waiver or exemption available?
Fannie Mae’s Waiver of Project Review and Freddie Mac’s Exempt From Review remain, with an expanded pathway for qualifying 2–10-unit projects. Conditions apply, and master-association structure can change the answer.
A waiver request is not an approval. Ask whether one is being sought, and when a decision is expected. -
Ask the association
Are current financial, repair and insurance documents available?
Budget, reserve study, SIRS, milestone inspection, engineering reports, minutes, assessments, permits, completion evidence, insurance and delinquency figures.
Availability is itself a signal. A well-run association produces these quickly; an association that cannot is telling you something before you have read a page. -
Ask the engineer and the lender
Have unresolved critical-repair issues been identified?
Where work affects safety, soundness, structural integrity or habitability, the agency standards focus on completion rather than funding.
This classification is not yours, ours or the seller’s to make. It requires project-specific engineering documentation and the lender’s analysis. -
Compare the documents
Does the reserve test apply, and how is it being met?
Either the percentage allocation — 10% now, 15% for applicable applications from January 4, 2027 — or a reserve study funded at its highest recommended allocation.
Request the complete study and the adopted budget together. One without the other cannot answer the question. -
Ask your lender
Is additional lender review or an overlay in play?
Lenders and investors apply their own requirements above the agency minimums. Two lenders can reach different conclusions on the same building.
If a project fails at one lender, that is a data point — not necessarily a verdict on the building. -
Decide with your representative
What does this mean for your contract?
Contingency timing, extension language, deposit exposure, price, and whether to proceed at all. This is a transaction-strategy question rather than a lending one.
Reach this step with time left on the contingency. That is the entire reason for running the flow in this order.
Fourteen questions, answered without rounding the edges off.
Several of these are here specifically to correct a claim in wide circulation. Where the primary sources do not settle a question, the answer says so rather than inventing certainty.
Did Fannie Mae ban Limited Review?
Did Freddie Mac eliminate Streamlined Review?
Do all Florida condos now require Full Review?
Does every Florida condo association need 15% reserves?
When does the 15% requirement begin?
Does a special assessment make a condo unfinanceable?
Can a condo with structural repairs still get financing?
Does a Florida SIRS satisfy Fannie Mae’s reserve-study requirements?
Are older Florida condos automatically harder to finance?
What documents should a buyer request?
Can lender rules be stricter than Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac rules?
Do these rules apply to cash buyers?
Do they apply to jumbo, FHA, VA or portfolio loans?
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac describe the effective date differently. Does that matter?
Where representation fits into a project-review problem.
Nothing above changes because of a rebate, and a rebate is no substitute for the diligence this page describes. But the work of getting an association’s documents early, reading them against what a lender will actually test, and structuring contingencies so you are not deciding in the final week — that is buyer representation, and it is the part of a condominium purchase where having someone on your side of the table earns its keep.
On the transactions we take on, that means requesting and reviewing the budget, reserve study, SIRS, milestone report, minutes and assessment history; coordinating the questions that belong to an engineer, a lender or Florida counsel rather than to us; comparing resale and pre-construction options on the basis of documented project risk rather than finish level; and managing contingency timing so a financing question is answered while you still have choices.
Where Jordan Real Estate is engaged as your buyer representative and receives buyer-agent compensation on an eligible transaction, eligible buyers receive up to 50% of our buyer-agent commission back at closing — subject to transaction terms, lender and closing requirements, broker and project cooperation where applicable, and buyer eligibility.
Illustration only — not a quote, an offer or a guarantee. Compensation is negotiated and varies by transaction, and not every transaction makes buyer-agent compensation available. Your actual rebate, if any, depends on the compensation actually received, your written buyer-representation agreement, lender approval of credits where financing is involved, and closing terms. We confirm the applicable figure in writing before you commit.
For the full mechanics — the legal basis in Florida, eligibility, lender treatment of credits and what can reduce or remove a rebate — see the Florida Buyer Rebate Guide.
Independent buyer representation, in English and Spanish.
Enrique Jordan and Alejandro Jordan have participated in over $1 billion in real estate transactions and bring more than 30 years of combined experience representing buyers, sellers, investors and developers across South Florida. Our office is in Coral Gables at 121 Alhambra Plaza.
We represent buyers. On the transactions we take on through this programme that means comparable analysis, offer strategy, negotiation, coordination of inspections and specialists, association and reserve review, contract review, and management of the transaction through to closing — and returning up to 50% of our buyer-agent commission to eligible buyers at closing.
Alejandro’s background in real estate law and title informs how we read a contract and how we approach closing. It does not make the brokerage a law firm, and it does not mean legal representation or legal advice is included in the brokerage relationship. Contract-specific and legal questions should be directed to qualified Florida counsel. More about Enrique and Alejandro.
Looking at a Florida condominium right now?
Tell us which building you are considering and where you are in the process. We will tell you which project documents to request first, what a lender is likely to test, and what your contingency timing should look like — before you are deciding under pressure.
(786) 550-6294- Already under contract? Send us the contract dates. Contingency timing is the single most important variable once the clock has started.
- Still looking? We can screen buildings on documented project risk before you fall in love with a floor plan.
- Considering a new development? Contact us before you visit the sales gallery or submit an inquiry — registration questions are usually decided at first contact.
No obligation, and no cost for the conversation. We will also tell you when a rebate is not available on a particular transaction, and when a building is not worth the diligence.
What this analysis is built on.
This page was written from primary materials only: the agencies’ own published policy documents and guides, the Florida Statutes, and Florida DBPR guidance. Trade and general-news reporting on these changes was used for background orientation and is not the basis of any factual statement here. Where the primary sources do not resolve a question, the page says so rather than filling the gap.
- Fannie Mae — Lender Letter LL-2026-03. Used for the retirement of Limited Review, the expanded Waiver of Project Review for qualifying 2–10-unit projects, the retirement of mandatory PERS review for specified Florida new and newly converted attached projects, the removal of the applicable established-project investment-property concentration restriction, the rejection of baseline reserve-study methodology, and the increase of the applicable reserve-budget allocation from 10% to 15%. singlefamily.fanniemae.com/media/44986/display
- Freddie Mac — Bulletin 2026-C. Used for the retirement of Streamlined Review for mortgages with Application Received Dates on or after August 3, 2026, and for the equivalent 15% reserve standard from January 4, 2027. guide.freddiemac.com/app/guide/bulletin/2026-C
- Freddie Mac — Condominium Unit Mortgage FAQ. Used for the Exempt From Review framework and its conditions, the 5–10-unit master-association limitations, the reserve-study highest-recommendation treatment, the Project Waiver Request framework for certain established projects that do not meet the reserve requirement, the Florida new-project process change, and the retirement of the established-project 50% owner-occupancy requirement. sf.freddiemac.com/faqs/condominium-unit-mortgage-faq
- Fannie Mae — Project Standards FAQs. Used for the treatment of project-condition information and inspection reports, the critical-repair concept and its completion requirement, and the separate treatment of regular-assessment and special-assessment delinquency. singlefamily.fanniemae.com/media/5511/display
- Florida Statutes § 718.112. Used for Structural Integrity Reserve Study requirements, components, the reserve framework, and the concurrency provision permitting certain associations to complete a SIRS alongside a milestone inspection but no later than December 31, 2026. leg.state.fl.us — § 718.112
- Florida Statutes § 718.503. Used for the treatment of milestone-inspection, turnover-inspection and SIRS material within Florida resale disclosures. leg.state.fl.us — § 718.503
- Florida DBPR — condominium inspection guidance. Used for the milestone-inspection trigger at 30 years, and for the 25-year trigger where the local enforcement agency has adopted it based on local circumstances. condos.myfloridalicense.com/inspections/
What we deliberately did not resolve
Application-date terminology. Fannie Mae uses loan application dates; Freddie Mac uses Application Received Dates. The sources do not explain how to treat a file with multiple application milestones, a reissued application or a changed loan product. We preserved both wordings rather than inventing a combined standard.
SIRS-to-agency reserve-study equivalence. The statutory SIRS and the agency reserve-study frameworks share purposes but state different requirements, and no primary source establishes that one automatically satisfies the other. We treated the overlap as unproven.
The scope of the 15% threshold. The sources support a 15% annual budget-allocation standard for the applicable agency condominium project review. They do not support the broader claim that every agency-financed Florida condominium, on every review route, must independently satisfy that test in the same manner.
Critical-repair classification. The sources establish what a critical repair means for eligibility. They do not, and we do not, classify any particular assessment, report item, roof condition or maintenance item as critical. That requires project-specific engineering documentation and lender review.
About the images
The photographic images on this page are AI-generated editorial illustrations. They are conceptual and do not depict actual properties, buildings, associations, clients or members of our team, and they neither represent nor imply any connection with Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation or any government agency.
How to read the analysis
Statements about what Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Florida law require are drawn from the primary sources listed above. The worked example in the assessments section, the decision flow, the scenario commentary and the practical timing advice are TheBuyerRebate.com editorial analysis, written to help a buyer act on the source material — they are not agency requirements and are identified as our own throughout.
Primary sources as cited · Current as of August 7, 2026
Please read this alongside the rest of the page.
Educational purpose. This article is general buyer education and market analysis. It is not legal, tax, accounting, engineering, insurance, lending or investment advice, and it does not create a brokerage, advisory or fiduciary relationship. It is not a complete statement of any agency guide, lender letter, bulletin, FAQ or Florida statute referred to, all of which contain detail, exceptions and definitions beyond the scope of a buyer article and all of which change over time.
Lending standards vary. Requirements differ by lender and by loan program, and lenders and investors may apply overlays stricter than the agency minimum standards. Nothing here predicts how any lender will underwrite any transaction. Confirm your financing requirements with your own lender, in writing, and confirm which investor channel your loan is intended for.
Project eligibility is fact-specific and can change. A project’s eligibility depends on its own facts and can change as association conditions, budgets, insurance, repair status and documentation change — including during a live transaction. Nothing on this page states or implies that any particular building is or is not financeable, and no project-specific condition is characterised here as a critical repair.
Use the right professional. Structural and repair questions require a qualified engineer. Association documents, purchase agreements and disclosure questions require qualified Florida counsel. Tax treatment requires a qualified tax professional. Financing requires your lender. We coordinate specialists; we do not substitute for them, and this page does not.
No affiliation or endorsement. Neither Jordan Real Estate nor TheBuyerRebate.com is affiliated with, sponsored by, endorsed by or acting on behalf of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation, or any other government agency or government-sponsored enterprise. References to their published materials are for accuracy of description only. Imagery on this page is illustrative and does not depict any building affected by the changes described.
A rebate is not guaranteed. Eligibility is transaction-specific and possible only where our brokerage actually receives buyer-agent compensation and a rebate is permitted under your written buyer-representation agreement. Compensation is negotiated rather than fixed, and not every transaction makes it available. Lender requirements, closing structure, developer registration and cooperation where applicable, timely involvement of your representative and applicable Florida rules may all affect whether a rebate is available and the form it takes. If the transaction does not close, no rebate arises. The calculator is an arithmetic illustration based on stated assumptions and is not a quote, an offer or a guarantee.