Condos
FHA and VA condo approval: checking the lists before you fall for a unit
By the Wholesale Mortgage Lending editorial team · Last reviewed August 18, 2026
The short answer
FHA and VA condo loans require the project, not just the borrower, to be acceptable to the agency. Both maintain public lookup tools: HUD's condominium search shows FHA project approvals by name, location, and status, and the VA's condo report on its loan guaranty portal shows VA project status. Checking a building before writing an offer tells you immediately whether these programs are on the table or an approval effort is needed first.
Why FHA and VA keep project lists at all
Government-backed condo lending works on a different model from conventional. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mostly delegate project review to lenders loan by loan; FHA and VA instead approve projects centrally and publish the results. If the building holds a current approval, an eligible borrower can use the program there; if it does not, the loan cannot proceed until the project is approved.
The logic is the same as every other condo rule: the agency's guarantee stands behind a unit whose value depends on the whole building's finances, insurance, and management, so the agency reviews the building. The difference is where the review happens and how visible the result is — the lists are public, which makes this one of the few parts of condo financing you can check yourself in minutes.
For Florida buyers using VA or FHA benefits, the list check belongs at the top of the search process. Filtering to approved buildings before touring saves the most painful version of this problem: finding the right unit in a building your loan program cannot touch on your contract's timeline.
Checking the FHA list
HUD publishes its approved condominium search on the entp.hud.gov portal. You can search by state, county, city, zip code, or project name, and filter by status — approved, expired, rejected, or withdrawn. The record shows the approval's dates, so check that the status is current rather than lapsed: FHA project approvals expire and must be renewed, and buildings drift off the list simply because nobody re-applied.
Read a miss carefully. A building absent from the list may never have applied, which is neutral, or may have been rejected or allowed to expire, which are different signals. The approval history shown in the lookup helps distinguish them.
FHA also has mechanisms short of full project approval — including case-by-case unit-level approval in unapproved projects under criteria HUD sets — and approval requirements differ for site condominiums. Whether a specific path is open for your building and transaction is a question your lender answers against HUD's current rules; the lookup tells you which conversation to have.
Checking the VA list
The VA maintains its own approved-condo database, published through the condo report on its loan guaranty portal at lgy.va.gov. Search by state and name to see whether a project is approved, and note the status: accepted projects are eligible, while other statuses signal an application in process or a problem in the record.
VA approval is separate from FHA approval. The VA reviews the project's organizational documents against its own requirements, and a building can hold one agency's approval without the other. If the building is unapproved, a lender can submit the project's documents to the VA for review — associations and sellers motivated to widen their buyer pool sometimes cooperate readily, but the review takes time that a short contract window may not allow.
The VA's home loan program itself — eligibility, entitlement, and the certificate of eligibility — is documented on VA.gov. The project approval is a separate gate from your personal eligibility: both must be open for the loan to close.
When the building is not on the list
You have three honest options. First, pursue approval: for VA, a lender submits the project for review; for FHA, the association or other parties can seek project approval, and unit-level paths may exist depending on the building and HUD's current criteria. This works best when the association cooperates and your closing date has slack.
Second, change programs. Conventional financing reviews projects loan by loan rather than from a central list, so a building without FHA or VA approval may still pass a conventional project review — with the down payment and qualifying differences that come with switching programs.
Third, change buildings. In condo-dense Florida markets there are usually approved alternatives, and the lookup tools let you generate that list before you tour. Wholesale Mortgage Lending arranges FHA, VA, and conventional condo loans through wholesale lenders; we run the project checks at pre-approval so your offer targets buildings your program can actually close in. The agencies, not us, decide project approval.
Questions people ask
Where do I check whether a condo is FHA or VA approved?
HUD's approved condominium search at entp.hud.gov lets you search FHA project approvals by location, name, and status. The VA's condo report, published through its loan guaranty portal at lgy.va.gov, shows VA project status. Both are free and public, and both are worth checking before an offer, since each agency keeps its own list.
The building's FHA approval is expired. What does that mean?
FHA project approvals lapse unless renewed, so an expired status often reflects administrative neglect rather than a problem with the building. The project can seek approval again, and depending on HUD's current criteria there may be unit-level options. Your lender can tell you which path fits your timeline.
Can a building be VA approved but not FHA approved, or vice versa?
Yes. The agencies maintain separate lists and separate review standards, and many buildings sought only one approval — or neither. That is why the check must be run against the specific program you plan to use rather than assumed from a general reputation of being government-loan friendly.
How long does getting a project approved take?
It depends on the agency's queue and how quickly the association produces documents, and neither is within your control as a buyer. Treat approval-in-progress as a timeline risk: either build the time into your contract, hold a conventional backup plan, or focus on buildings already approved.
Sources
This guide is written against the primary sources below, which is where the current figures live when a figure has deliberately not been quoted here.
- FHA Approved Condominiums search — U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
- VA Loan Guaranty — Condo Report — U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
- VA housing assistance — home loans — U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Put this to work on your own numbers
Reading is the easy half. Run your own scenario through the planner, or ask a licensed mortgage professional the question this page could not answer for your exact situation.