Gita Sankano flags four shifts in real estate finance through 2025

Gita Sankano, an attorney with the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development, has outlined four trends she expects to reshape real estate finance and community development over the next year. Her outlook centers on tax credit pricing, bond costs, secondary market execution and tighter compliance in layered affordable housing deals.

Why it matters: - Real estate finance deals for 2025 are being structured now, so shifts in pricing, rates and regulation can change whether projects close on time. - Sankano’s outlook matters most for lenders, developers and public agencies working on multifamily housing and health care facilities. - More information and the company's announcement were included with the release.

What happened: - Gita Sankano published a one-year outlook on four changes she expects to affect real estate finance and community development through the end of 2025. - Sankano is an attorney representing the D.C. Department of Housing and Community Development. - Her forecast is based on work coordinating closings across the U.S. for multifamily housing projects and health care facilities. - Sankano also advises on complex affordable housing finance transactions with layered financing structures. - Sankano said the next 12 months will test how well deal structures adapt to changing conditions.

The details: - Low Income Housing Tax Credit pricing has fluctuated over the past two years, and Sankano expects continued volatility as investor appetite responds to broader economic signals. - Projects that combine LIHTCs with Historic Tax Credits face tighter pricing windows. - Sankano recommends that sponsors build in more contingency time and alternative capital stacks. - Tax-exempt bond rates remain a core financing tool for multifamily projects, but interest rate uncertainty makes long-term underwriting harder. - Deals using taxable and tax-exempt bonds with subordinate soft debt need more flexible timelines and closer coordination with state and local funding sources. - Fannie Mae’s Delegated Underwriting and Servicing product line and Freddie Mac’s Capital Markets Execution program have long served as takeout vehicles. - Sankano expects both programs to adjust their appetite and pricing in response to portfolio risk management. - That shift is likely to affect origination and servicing practices. - FHA-insured projects under Sections 220, 221(d)(4), 223(a)(7), 223(f), 232 and 241(a) of the National Housing Act face dense compliance requirements. - Section 8 contracts, Section 202 and Section 236 Use Agreements, and mezzanine financing add to the documentation burden. - Sankano expects increased scrutiny on subordinate debt terms and intercreditor agreements. - Sankano recommends three practical checks: capital stack flexibility, closing timelines and documentation discipline. - Every major component of a deal, from senior debt to tax credit equity to subordinate soft loans, should have a backup plan. - Buffer time should be built in for regulatory approvals, investor diligence and market changes. - Clear intercreditor agreements, subordination terms and compliance tracking are critical in complex structures.

Between the lines: - Sankano’s forecast is as much about execution risk as market risk. - The warning is that affordable housing and mixed-finance deals can unravel when approval timelines, pricing windows and funding sources move out of sync. - Her perspective comes from private practice, secondary market mortgage work and her current public-sector role, giving her a view across the full transaction chain. - She clerked for the Honorable Michael W. Reed at the Court of Special Appeals in Maryland and spent five years at a large law firm before joining DHCD.

What's next: - Transaction teams are likely to revisit financing assumptions, closing schedules and compliance processes as they plan deals that may close in late 2025. - Sankano expects teams that prepare for volatility to be better positioned to close, while those waiting for certainty may fall behind. - The one-year time frame is meant to be practical and adaptable as conditions change.

The bottom line: - Sankano’s message is that successful housing finance deals in the next year will depend less on perfect market conditions and more on flexible structures, tighter coordination and disciplined documentation.