Loans backed by apartment buildings rose by roughly $40 billion last year.
Overall, 2,653 different lenders provide $110 billion in new mortgages for residential buildings with five or more units, according to a report released Thursday by the Mortgage Bankers Association.
The funding represents a jump of 60% from 2010.
Wells Fargo (WFC), JPMorgan Chase (JPM) CBRE Group (CBRE), PNC Financial (PNC) and Berkadia led the list of lenders to apartment projects in 2011, as measured by dollar volume, according to the association.
"The $110 billion of borrowing and lending backed by multifamily apartment buildings in 2011 was more than double the amount of just two years earlier," Jamie Woodwell, the group's vice president of commercial real estate research, said in a news release. "The growth is a testament to the improvements in both the underlying multifamily property markets and the broader capital markets."
