When does the 15% condo reserve requirement start in 2027?

Which date controls?

The lender-letter effective date is tied to the loan application date, not the association's fiscal-year start or the date the budget was adopted. The current Selling Guide still displays the 10% test; the lender letter is the primary instrument announcing the future step-up.

A budget adopted in late 2026 for the 2027 fiscal year will be read against 15% by every lender whose borrower applies on or after January 4, 2027. The 2027 budget is the one to get right.

How is the percentage calculated?

The numerator is annual budgeted replacement-reserve allocation. The denominator is annual budgeted assessment income, subject to four permitted exclusions stated in the Guide: qualifying incidental income, owner-paid utility collections, income allocated to reserve accounts, and special-assessment income.

Ballast's reserve allocation calculator does the arithmetic on the adopted budget, reads the share against both the 10% and the 15% tests, and states the dollar gap and the cost per unit per month.

An acceptable reserve study may be used instead of the percentage calculation only when all substitution conditions are met. That is a lender review, not a promise that having a study makes the project eligible.

What about Freddie Mac?

Freddie Mac reviews condominium projects under its own Single-Family Seller/Servicer Guide, Chapter 5701, and publishes changes through its Bulletins. Its reserve requirement is stated there, not in the Fannie Mae instruments cited on this page. Ballast has not verified Freddie Mac's reserve figure or its effective dates against that guide, so this page states neither. A lender selling to Freddie Mac applies Freddie Mac's test; a board that wants to know where it stands with both agencies should ask the lender which one it delivers to.