FHA condo approval, HRAP, and the single-unit route
What project approval is, why so few South Florida buildings hold one, and what an expired approval really means.
FHA lends on a condominium unit only where the project itself is approved. Approval is granted at project level through HUD's review process — HRAP, the HUD Review and Approval Process — and it lapses on a fixed cycle unless the association renews it. That renewal is paperwork, not a structural test.
Across South Florida, very few buildings hold a current approval, and the largest single group in our file is not rejected buildings but buildings with nothing on file at all. That usually means nobody ever applied. Absence of an approval is unconfirmed standing, not a rejection, and it is why our records never describe an unapproved building as failing anything.
Where a building is eligible, a lender can pursue single-unit approval for an individual unit rather than the whole project. It is narrower and it is not available everywhere, but it is the route that most often gets an FHA buyer to closing in a building without project approval. An expired approval is the most fixable position of all: the building cleared review once already.
- Buyers: ask a lender whether single-unit approval is available for the specific unit before you rule the building out.
- Boards: if your approval has expired, renewal restores a buyer pool you are currently turning away without knowing it.
- Everyone: check the date. Approval status changes whenever an association or lender files, and our record shows what was on file when it was pulled.