Apartment Refinance Closing Costs: Every Line Item

Short answer

Apartment refinance closing costs include the lender's origination and application fees, the appraisal, property condition and environmental reports, lender and borrower legal fees, title insurance, survey, recording costs and any rate lock deposit, plus upfront escrows and reserves. Most are quoted deal by deal. HUD publishes its fees: a 0.30% application fee and 0.25% upfront mortgage insurance on 223(f).

The short answer

Closing costs on an apartment refinance fall into four groups: what the lender charges, what the third-party reports cost, what the lawyers and title company charge, and the cash the lender holds back in escrows and reserves. Only HUD and a few agency fees are published. Everything else is quoted for your deal, so the way to know your number is to get line-item quotes and add them up.

The lines below are the ones you will see. For each: who charges it, what drives the amount, and the published figure where one exists. Then put your own quotes into the estimator.

Closing cost estimator

Loan amount ($)

Line item	Type	Amount

Total closing costs–

As % of the loan–

Estimates only, not a loan quote.

What the lender charges

Origination or financing fee

Charged by the lender or loan originator as a percentage of the loan. Driven by loan size (small loans cost more as a percentage), program and competition among lenders. On HUD loans the lender's financing and placement fees together are capped at 3.5% of the mortgage, and that cap includes the lender's legal fee. That is a ceiling, not a typical charge. Other programs do not publish a cap.

Application fee

Paid when you sign the application. Freddie Mac Conventional Small publishes an application fee of 0.1% of the loan amount; on its larger conventional loans the fee is the greater of $2,000 or 0.1%. HUD charges $3 per thousand dollars of the requested mortgage (0.30%) under MAP processing, paid in full with the Firm Commitment application on a refinance and nonrefundable once HUD accepts it; under Traditional Application Processing the market-rate fee is $5 per thousand. Lenders may charge their own application or processing fees as well.

Rate lock deposit

Some lenders require a deposit to lock a rate, often refunded at closing. Driven by the lock period and the program. If you fail to close, you may owe breakage costs; read the lock agreement.

HUD mortgage insurance premium

Charged by FHA on 223(f) loans. For applications submitted or amended on or after October 1, 2025, the upfront premium is 0.25% of the loan, capitalized at closing, and the annual premium is 0.25%. Before that change the 223(f) upfront premium was 1.00% and the annual premium 0.60%, so older HUD quotes overstate the cost.

HUD inspection fee

Charged by HUD on 223(f) loans with repairs. It is $1,500 when total repairs are under $100,000 (which the HUD office may reduce if the lender takes responsibility for inspection), $30 per unit when repairs exceed $100,000 but are $3,000 per unit or less, and the greater of $30 per unit, 1% of repair cost or $1,500 when repairs exceed $3,000 per unit.

Third-party reports

Ordered by the lender, paid by you, usually as deposits at application.

Appraisal. Driven by property size, complexity and market. Required on all permanent programs.
Property condition report. An engineer's inspection of the building and its systems, with a repair list and a reserve schedule. Driven by unit count, age and the number of buildings. HUD requires a fuller Capital Needs Assessment. See property condition reports.
Environmental report. A Phase I environmental site assessment on standard Fannie Mae loans; Fannie's Small Loan program uses a streamlined environmental screening under ASTM E-1528-14, which costs less. A Phase I that finds a problem can lead to a Phase II. See environmental assessments.
Other reports. Seismic, zoning, or radon testing depending on location and program.

On HUD loans, third-party costs can be included in the mortgage as eligible transaction costs and sit outside the 3.5% lender fee cap.

Legal, title and recording

Lender's counsel. You pay the lender's attorney to draft and negotiate the loan documents. Driven by program (CMBS and HUD documents take more work), entity complexity and how much you negotiate.
Your counsel. Reviews the loan documents and prepares entity and authority documents. Driven by the same factors.
Title insurance. A new lender's title policy and endorsements. Driven by loan amount and state; in many states the premium follows a filed rate schedule. Ask whether a reissue rate applies because the property was insured recently.
Survey. The lender may accept an existing survey with an affidavit of no change, or require a new one. A new survey costs more on larger sites.
Recording fees and mortgage taxes. Set by the county and state. Some states charge a mortgage recording or intangibles tax that can be one of the largest lines on the statement; others charge almost nothing. Check your state before you estimate.

Escrows and reserves

Not fees, but cash that leaves your hands at closing. Freddie Mac Conventional Small generally requires tax, insurance and replacement reserve escrows; Fannie Mae typically requires them on its fixed-rate loans and on higher-leverage Small Loans. The lender may also escrow for repairs on the property condition report. Your old loan's escrow balances come back to you after payoff, which offsets some of this.

Costs that are not closing costs but come out of the same money

Prepayment on the old loan. Yield maintenance, defeasance or a step-down percentage. Often the largest single cost of refinancing early. Estimate it with the yield maintenance or defeasance calculator, and see prepayment penalties.
Defeasance costs. If your old loan defeases, add the securities, the defeasance consultant, the successor borrower and the accountant's fees.
Accrued interest. Interest on the old loan through the payoff date.

A worked example with published HUD fees

A hypothetical $5,000,000 HUD 223(f) refinance under MAP, with repairs under $100,000. The published HUD charges are:

Line	Basis	Amount
HUD application fee	$3 per $1,000	$15,000
Upfront mortgage insurance premium	0.25% of loan	$12,500
HUD inspection fee	Repairs under $100,000	$1,500
Lender financing and placement fees	Capped at 3.5% of loan, including lender legal	Up to $175,000

The appraisal, Capital Needs Assessment, environmental report, title, survey, borrower's counsel and recording are quoted separately, and the annual 0.25% premium is paid as part of debt service after closing. For comparison, the published application fee on a $5,000,000 Freddie Mac Conventional Small loan is $5,000 (0.1%).

How to keep the number down

Get line-item quotes from at least two lenders, and compare them on total cost over your hold with the term sheet comparison, not on rate alone.
Ask whether recent reports can be updated rather than redone, and whether the lender accepts your existing survey.
Ask the title company about a reissue rate.
Close inside your old loan's open prepayment window when you can.
Send a complete package. Re-inspections, re-trades and extended rate locks all cost money.

Janover Capital LLC is not a lender. We compare lenders and arrange financing, and we can lay quotes side by side line by line. Email desk@janover.co or call (561) 556-9997.

Frequently asked questions

How much are closing costs on an apartment building refinance?

It depends on the loan size, program, state and lender, and most lines are quoted deal by deal rather than published. Add the lender's fees, the appraisal, property condition and environmental reports, both sides' legal fees, title, survey and recording costs, then the escrows and reserves held at closing. Small loans cost more as a percentage of the loan because many of these costs do not shrink with loan size.

What fees does HUD charge on a 223(f) refinance?

Under MAP, HUD charges an application fee of $3 per thousand dollars of the requested mortgage, paid with the Firm Commitment application. For applications on or after October 1, 2025, mortgage insurance is 0.25% upfront and 0.25% a year. The inspection fee is $1,500 when repairs are under $100,000 and scales with repair cost above that. Lender financing and placement fees are capped at 3.5% including the lender's legal fee.

Can closing costs be rolled into an apartment refinance?

Often, as long as the loan still passes the lender's LTV and DSCR tests with the costs included. On HUD 223(f) loans, third-party costs such as the appraisal and Capital Needs Assessment can be included in the mortgage as eligible transaction costs. If the loan is already at its limit, the costs come out of cash-out proceeds or out of your pocket at closing.

Who pays the lender's attorney on an apartment refinance?

The borrower does. Commercial and multifamily lenders pass their counsel's fee for drafting and negotiating the loan documents to you, in addition to your own attorney's fee. Ask for a fee estimate or cap when you sign the application. On HUD loans, the lender's legal fee counts inside the 3.5% cap on financing and placement fees.

Are escrows and reserves part of closing costs?

They are not fees, but they are cash you fund at closing. Lenders commonly collect tax and insurance escrows, a replacement reserve and sometimes a repair escrow from the property condition report. Freddie Mac Conventional Small generally requires tax, insurance and replacement reserve escrows. Escrow balances on your old loan are refunded after payoff, which offsets part of the new deposits.