Fannie Mae Backs $556M Refi for Scion's Student Housing
The floating-rate, interest-only structure shows what agency lenders will still write against student housing at scale, and at what price.
Walker & Dunlop arranged a floating-rate, interest-only refinancing for The Scion Group’s 14-property student housing portfolio through an existing Fannie Mae credit facility, the firm announced July 30. Walker & Dunlop’s own release headlines the deal at roughly $556 million; the precise figure trade outlets are citing is $555.6 million. The portfolio spans 4,295 units and 10,454 beds, the number that matters in student housing, across Arizona, Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and Texas.
Why it matters
This is a read on what agency capital will still underwrite in student housing, and how. Fannie Mae wrote floating-rate, interest-only paper against a nine-state portfolio rather than pricing it property by property, and Scion now holds four separate Fannie Mae credit facilities, all originated by Walker & Dunlop. For a developer weighing how to capitalize a purpose-built student housing deal this quarter, that structure, revolving facility capacity tied to a single relationship lender, is the template on offer right now, not a one-off.
Florida is inside the national portfolio through Lark Central Florida, a 416-unit, 995-bed community in Orlando serving University of Central Florida students. The asset was 88.9 percent preleased for fall 2026 at the time of the refinancing, the kind of occupancy signal that makes a property bankable on a revolving facility rather than a standalone loan.
The numbers
The deal totals $555.6 million against 14 properties, 4,295 units and 10,454 beds. Walker & Dunlop’s deal team, Brendan Coleman, Will Baker and Colin Coleman, structured the loan as floating-rate and interest-only, drawn against a credit facility Scion already had in place rather than a fresh origination. Lark Central Florida contributes 416 of the portfolio’s units and 995 of its beds.
What’s next
Watch whether Fannie Mae keeps expanding revolving credit facilities for repeat student housing borrowers instead of writing discrete loans, since that structure lets an operator like Scion refinance at portfolio scale without re-underwriting each asset. For developers courting agency debt this cycle, a borrower’s existing relationship with a single correspondent lender is increasingly the fastest path to a nine-figure facility.