Commercial bridge loans that carry Houston deals to takeout.
Access equity or finance a project before permanent financing. Flexible commercial bridge across property types, with terms up to 24-36 months and loan sizes up to $10M. Houston retail is tight, industrial is absorbing new supply, and office is a basis story, so the asset class sets the plan. Business-purpose only, and every structure is set in underwriting.
Typical figures, subject to underwriting and market conditions. Not a commitment to lend.
How it works
Use bridge capital to reposition an asset, buy out a partner, or stabilize before a refinance. We move quickly on commercial deals that banks find too time-sensitive. When the asset is stabilized, we refinance you out of the bridge and into long-term permanent debt, which we also place in house, so you have a clear exit from day one.
Can a Houston office building still get financed at 24.7% vacancy?
Not as stabilized permanent debt, which is exactly why bridge exists. Cushman and Wakefield put overall Houston office vacancy at 24.7% in the second quarter of 2026, down 10 basis points quarter over quarter, with Class B at 28.7% against Class A at 23.9%. At those numbers a permanent lender is underwriting the metro. We underwrite your rent roll, your tenant credit, and the tenant improvement and leasing commission budget it takes to get from where the building is to where your plan says it lands. Class B office is where most Houston bridge requests cluster right now, and the two things that decide the file are basis and a leasing plan with real dollars behind it. See the CRE bridge program for structure.
Why do I see three different Houston industrial vacancy numbers?
Because each brokerage defines the Houston industrial base differently, so the figures are not comparable. CBRE reported 6.7% vacancy for the second quarter of 2026, with about 7.0 million square feet of net absorption in the quarter, 5.8 million square feet delivered, and 17.7 million square feet under construction at 42% pre-leased. Matthews and Avison Young published 7.3% and 7.6% for the same market on their own inventory definitions. Pick one house, name it, and keep it consistent across your pro forma so your committee is comparing like with like. The more useful signal is the supply: asking rent growth turned roughly negative 0.8% annually on the brokerage summaries, described as the first negative print in more than a decade. Underwrite a stabilized rent you can defend, not last year's.
Which Houston property types have a clean permanent takeout right now?
Retail is the most financeable of the three on a stabilized basis. Cushman and Wakefield had Houston retail vacancy at 5.8% in the second quarter of 2026, up 10 basis points both quarter over quarter and year over year, and inside a 5.0% to 5.8% band for the past four years. That stability is what a permanent lender wants to see. Industrial is fundamentally healthy on absorption but supply-pressured on rent, so a bridge-to-perm exit there should be sized on a conservative stabilized rent rather than the top of the comp set. We write the bridge and the permanent loan, so the takeout assumptions get tested at the front of the deal instead of at month 20. Both are subject to underwriting.
How should I underwrite rent on a Houston multifamily lease-up or repositioning?
Stress the rent, not the appreciation. Houston multifamily occupancy was 88.1% in the second quarter of 2026, down from 88.6% a year earlier, with average asking rent at $1,368 against $1,380, 7,492 units absorbed over the trailing 12 months, 4,719 units delivered in the quarter, and 13,066 still under construction. New deliveries in lease-up compete on concessions, and that sets the effective rent your renovated units can actually reach. Build the pro forma on effective rent net of concessions, give the lease-up a real number of months, and size the term to it. Our bridge runs up to 24 to 36 months, interest-only, which is meant to survive a slow leasing quarter rather than a perfect one.
What happens to my property taxes and carry after I reposition a Houston asset?
Plan for a reassessment, and know that the one cap protecting you is scheduled to lapse. Texas Tax Code section 23.231 caps the appraised value increase on non-homestead real property at 20% a year plus new improvements, for properties at or below a threshold that indexes annually, set at $5 million for tax year 2024. It took effect January 1, 2024 and expires December 31, 2026 unless the Legislature extends it, so a hold underwritten into 2027 should not assume it survives. Combined rates inside Houston city limits run roughly 2.1% of taxable value on 2025 rates, and a property in a Katy, Cypress, Fort Bend or Montgomery County MUD carries that district's levy on top, which can push a total rate meaningfully higher. Pull the actual rates for your parcel from the appraisal district and the district's own filings, and talk to your CPA or property tax counsel about the reassessment.
How do commercial closings and distressed timelines work in Harris County?
A title company closes the deal, and the distressed calendar is fast and fixed. Texas title insurance premiums are promulgated by the Texas Department of Insurance, with rates effective March 1, 2026, so every licensed title company charges the same basic premium and you choose on execution rather than price. Foreclosure is non-judicial under Texas Property Code section 51.002: notice of sale goes out at least 21 days before the sale, and sales run on the first Tuesday of the month at the county courthouse between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., moving to the first Wednesday when the first Tuesday falls on January 1 or July 4. That short cycle recycles distressed Houston inventory quickly, and it means a note purchase or a courthouse-steps play needs certainty of funds on a known date. Tell us the date you have to perform by and we will tell you straight whether we can hit it. Talk to us or start an application.
How much equity do I need on a Class B Houston office repositioning?
At least 25% of value. Leverage runs up to 75% LTV, so on a $4,000,000 Houston asset that is up to $3,000,000 from us and $1,000,000 from you (4,000,000 x 75% = 3,000,000). On a Class B office file the tenant improvement and leasing commission budget sits inside that plan, so bring it as a real number rather than a placeholder. Payments are interest-only for the term. Subject to underwriting.
What is the largest bridge loan you will write in Houston?
Up to $10M. Term runs up to 24 to 36 months, interest-only, and it works as a bridge or a cash-out. We size the term to a leasing plan with real months in it rather than a best case, which is the whole point of bridge debt on a Houston office repositioning or a multifamily lease-up. Subject to underwriting.
No, the asset does. We pull credit, but on a bridge it carries far less weight than at a bank and there is no minimum score. Weaker credit typically means lower leverage rather than a decline. What actually decides the file is basis, the rent roll and a funded plan to reach takeout. There is no hard credit pull to start. Subject to underwriting.
More CRE Bridge questions, answered on the program page
Local rules move. Every tax rate, fee, ordinance and market figure here comes from a primary source and carries the date we read it, and we correct them as the rules change. Where a number is mid-change or we could not verify it, we say so rather than guess. Before you commit a budget, confirm anything that drives it with the city or county, and talk to your attorney or CPA on questions of law or tax.
Published by USA Mortgage Funding, LLC, NMLS #152588. Researched from primary sources by our team, drafted with AI assistance, and every figure checked against its source before publishing. Where an answer rests on a public record, that record is linked under it. Figures read on 2026-08-12.
Funding Houston deals fast.
Get real terms, usually same day. No obligation, no hard credit pull to start.
