If your condo can’t get a conventional loan after August 3, 2026, you are not out of options — non-warrantable condo financing still closes these deals. Below is exactly what changed, which condos it affects most, and what to do next.
What actually changed on August 3, 2026?
Fannie Mae (in Lender Letter LL-2026-03) and Freddie Mac, coordinated with the FHFA, retired the Limited Review and Streamlined Review shortcuts for established condominium projects. For any loan application dated on or after August 3, 2026, an established condo project generally has to pass a Full Review — unless it qualifies for a narrow waiver.
Limited Review was the light-touch path. It let a well-qualified borrower with a strong down payment skip most of the project-level scrutiny. That path is gone. A Full Review looks hard at the whole building, not just you: the HOA budget and reserves, the master insurance, deferred maintenance and special assessments, litigation, and commercial or investor concentration.
At the same time, the agencies tightened the money side. Projects now have to show their budget includes the highest recommended reserve allocation from a reserve study, the old “baseline funding” shortcut is gone, and the required reserve contribution rises from 10% to 15% (effective January 4, 2027).
Does this make my condo “non-warrantable”?
Not automatically — but it moves a lot of buildings in that direction. “Warrantable” just means a condo meets Fannie or Freddie’s project rules so a conventional loan can be sold to them. Retiring Limited Review doesn’t change your credit or your down payment; it changes how many buildings can clear the project bar. Older buildings, coastal buildings, and projects with thin reserves, an active special assessment, ongoing litigation, or a master insurance gap are exactly the ones a Full Review is built to catch. Many will now fail conventional review that would have squeaked through before.
When a project can’t pass, the loan is called non-warrantable — not because anything is wrong with you, but because the building doesn’t fit the conventional box.
Which condos are most exposed?
This lands hardest in Florida, and Miami in particular. Post-Surfside reserve and structural-inspection pressure, the state’s insurance market, and a large stock of older coastal mid- and high-rises mean a meaningful share of established projects already run thin on reserves or carry insurance and assessment complications. The Limited Review path was quietly holding a lot of those deals together. After August 3, the Full Review surfaces the problem.
Typical reasons a project now falls out of conventional warrantability:
- Reserves below the new thresholds, or a budget that doesn’t fund the reserve study’s full recommendation
- An active or recent special assessment, or significant deferred maintenance
- Litigation involving the association (beyond routine matters)
- A master insurance shortfall or excluded perils
- High investor/commercial concentration or single-entity ownership in the project
What are my options if my condo can’t get a conventional loan?
You finance it as a non-warrantable condo — through a portfolio or non-QM loan that underwrites the borrower and the building on their own merits instead of forcing the project into Fannie/Freddie’s box. These programs are built precisely for strong buyers stuck in imperfect buildings, and they routinely close purchases and refinances that conventional review now turns away.
A non-warrantable condo loan can work when the project has an open special assessment, a pending lawsuit, elevated investor concentration, or reserves that don’t meet the new conventional standard. It’s a real, established lane — not a workaround. For international buyers on Miami condo files, the same lane routes through our foreign national program.
The move is to have your project screened early. Whether a condo passes conventional Full Review or needs non-warrantable financing usually comes down to the HOA’s budget, reserves, insurance, and any open assessments or litigation — the same documents either way. Knowing which lane you’re in before you write an offer keeps a good deal from dying at the finish line.
The deals most at risk after August 3 aren’t your shaky buyers — they’re your strong buyers in imperfect buildings. A pre-approved client can still lose a condo purchase because the project fails Full Review. If a listing or a buyer’s target building has an open assessment, litigation, or thin reserves, loop us in before the contract. We can tell you quickly whether it’s conventional-eligible or a non-warrantable close, so the deal doesn’t fall apart in underwriting.
What to do now
If you’re buying, get the building screened before you write the offer. If you own and are refinancing, don’t assume the loan you got two years ago is available today under Full Review. Either way, the answer isn’t “no” — it’s “which lane.” Send us the project and we’ll tell you where it stands.
Have a Miami condo — yours, a client’s, or a listing — and want to know before contract whether it clears conventional Full Review? Send us the building and we’ll pull the lane.