SBA Doubles Cumulative 7(a) and 504 Loan Limit to $10 Million

The SBA just doubled the total SBA 7a and 504 loan limit to $10 million. https://www.sba.gov/article/2026/05/18/sba-doubles-cumulative-7a-504-loan-limit-10-million The old rule capped your total SBA exposure at $5M across both programs combined. If you used a $5M 7(a) to buy a business, you were done. For deals above $5m most searchers had to look into pari-passu loans but there are only 12 good pari-passu lenders in the country. New rule: up to $5M on the 7(a), up to $5M on the 504, $10M total. Buy the business with a 7(a) and use another $5m with a 504 for the real estate or a major equipment purchase. There are a LOT of good SBA lenders that do both SBA 7a and SBA 504. We think it significantly expands every searchers ability to do larger 5m+ deals when real estate is involved. Operating company in a 7(a), owner-occupied real estate in a 504, both from day one. Manufacturers still get unlimited 504s for separate projects on top of the new $5M 7(a) ceiling. What didn't change. DSCR still has to clear 1.25x in every individual year. 10% equity on total project cost. 504 still requires owner-occupancy. If you have a deal sitting above $5M total project cost, or you closed something in the last 2 years with real estate still owned by the seller, we would love to help. We would love to work with you to find the best SBA lender for your deal. We are partnered with 50+ lenders and a lot of our lenders are excited about doing more 7a/504 combo deals. We are a 100% free service to the borrower, since we get paid by the lender post-close. If you have a deal that you need help financing please reach out to us and we would love to help. Please use this meeting link to schedule a meeting with my team: https://cal.com/team/sba/searchfunder