Commercial refinance: what the lenders and brokers actually publish

What each firm publishes

How to get a commercial refinance priced properly

1. Work out your debt service coverage first. It is net operating income divided by the annual debt service, and it is the number the whole application turns on. Commercial Loan Direct names it the first of four credit pillars lenders focus on, alongside loan-to-value, liquidity and net worth.
2. Know what the property type does to your leverage. Terrydale Capital publishes 65% to 75% as typical for strong assets and says lenders may cap challenged types, office in soft markets and retail with risk, at 60% to 65% or lower. The asset moves the number more than the borrower does.
3. Find out what leaving the old loan costs. A prepayment penalty, a step-down, yield maintenance or defeasance on securitised debt can be large enough to make a better rate a worse deal. Get the payoff figure in writing before you shop.
4. Ask each lender whether its number is its own. The most useful question in this market, and the one this record was built around. A 75% you were quoted and a 75% you read in a guide are not the same thing.

What the published maximums are

Read on 10 September 2026. Speaking for themselves: LendingOne publishes up to 80% LTV on purchase or rate-and-term refinance and up to 75% on cash-out; Lendmire publishes 75% as its maximum cash-out LTV, with a 700+ FICO and a debt service coverage floor on the same page; Commercial Lending USA's own programme table prints 75% against small commercial of five or more units and up to 80% on one-to-four unit residential.

Describing the market: Commercial Loan Direct publishes 65% to 75% as common for conventional commercial mortgages; Terrydale Capital cites 65% to 75% for strong assets; Clopton Capital publishes 60% to 75% for most commercial mortgage refinances; Unconventional Lending publishes a typical cap of 75%; and Commercial Mortgage Broker publishes the highest figure in the record, SBA 504 at up to 90% combined LTV.

The 90% figure, and why it is not what it looks like

SBA 504 at up to 90% combined loan-to-value is the most attractive number in this record and the one most often misread. Combined means across two loans: a bank first mortgage and the SBA debenture behind it, together reaching 90%, not 90% from a single lender. It also requires the business to occupy the property, so it is an owner-occupier programme rather than an investor one. The same page publishes CMBS conduit lenders up to 75%, sometimes 80%, and bridge and hard money at 65% to 75% of as-is value.

Whose number is it, and why the question matters

The one thing to check on any published number in this market is who it is about. A firm stating its OWN credit box is telling you what it will do; a firm stating what lenders generally require is describing a market it does not control. Of the 8 firms in this record publishing a maximum loan-to-value, 3 are speaking for themselves and 5 are describing the market, and every figure on this site says which. A borrower who reads the second kind as an offer will be disappointed at underwriting, and that is the commonest way a commercial refinance goes wrong before it starts.

What a refinance costs to close

A commercial refinance carries closing costs a residential one does not, and they are due whether or not the loan closes. Expect a commercial appraisal, a Phase I environmental report, a survey, title work, lender legal fees and origination points, and expect the lender to order most of them rather than let you shop. On top of that sits whatever the existing loan charges to leave: a prepayment penalty, a step-down, yield maintenance, or defeasance on securitised debt, which is the expensive one. None of it appears in a loan-to-value figure.

Questions borrowers ask before they apply

What loan-to-value can I get on a commercial refinance?

Of the 10 firms read for this record, 8 publish a maximum and the median is 75%. Three speak for themselves: LendingOne up to 80% rate-and-term and 75% cash-out, Lendmire 75% cash-out, Commercial Lending USA 75% on small commercial of 5+ units.

What DSCR do commercial lenders require?

The firms in this record publish figures clustering around 1.20 to 1.25 as a conventional minimum, with some programmes stated as low as 1.00. Commercial Loan Direct names debt service coverage the first of the four pillars lenders underwrite on.

Why will nobody quote me a rate up front?

Because commercial pricing is set per asset, per market and per borrower, and a published rate would be either heavily hedged or immediately stale. That is why this record measures what firms publish about REQUIREMENTS instead, and why the quote form asks several of them at once.

Other property types in the record

• Commercial property: what the lenders who refinance it actually require
• Apartment buildings: what the lenders who refinance it actually require