South Carolina DSCR Loans 2026: 2,602 Loans, 118 Lenders, Rates

Two South Carolinas: a coast that buys as individuals and an inland market that refinances through LLCs

South Carolina's 2,602 loans are 1.7% of the 154,354 DSCR-type loans on our national DSCR lender ranking (our arithmetic). The state is not a copy of the others in this series. Its coast is a second-home market, and the loan data shows it: the Grand Strand and the Hilton Head side borrow differently from Columbia and the Upstate. Another 164 loans (6.3%) carry no county in the file, almost all from three lenders that report no county on any loan (RCN Capital, Investor Mortgage Finance and Rain City Capital).

DSCR-type loans by region, 2025 (our grouping of HMDA county codes)

The groupings are ours and are listed in the data file. Rates barely differ (7.125% to 7.5% in the seven regions with a county), and the loan and the borrower differ a lot. On the Grand Strand 431 of 547 loans were purchases (78.8%), 94% went to natural persons, and 3.5% were on two- to four-unit buildings. In the Columbia area purchases were 35.3% and cash-out refinances 37.6%, and 37.6% went to entities. That is the profile of a coastal buyer on one side and of a local landlord refinancing a rental on the other (our reading; HMDA does not say who the borrower is or what the property is used for).

The second-home mix: why the coast is different

HMDA marks each loan as principal residence, second home or investment property. Taking every originated conventional first-lien loan on a one- to four-unit home (not reverse mortgages or open-end lines), South Carolina had 68,520 in 2025: 55,363 on principal residences, 4,244 on second homes (6.2%) and 8,913 on investment property (13.0%) (our arithmetic).

Occupancy mix of conventional first-lien loans on 1-4 unit homes, by region, 2025 (our arithmetic)

By county, second homes were 15.8% of such loans in Horry (1,459 of 9,238), 18.9% in Georgetown (177 of 938), 17.5% in Beaufort (659 of 3,769) and 7.6% in Charleston (505 of 6,680), against 2.2% in Richland and 2.3% in Greenville. The Grand Strand also has the highest investment share of any region (19.2%), so it is both a second-home and a rental market. Two cautions. First, 4,032 of the 4,244 second-home loans are flagged as not business-purpose and 183 as exempt from that field, and only 29 as business-purpose: a vacation home bought as a second home is a consumer loan in this file, so it is not one of the 2,602, whatever it earns in rent. A buyer who plans to rent a coastal property full time is, in the file's terms, an investor, and the next page to read is short-term rental loans; for second-home pricing see second-home mortgage rates. Second, HMDA does not mark short-term rentals at all, so we do not say how many of the Grand Strand loans are vacation rentals.

The DSCR-type share of investor loans is lowest in the Hilton Head and Lowcountry region (19.4%) and highest in the Charleston tri-county (34.9%). Beaufort County has 590 investor loans but 112 DSCR-type (19.0%): the other 478 include short-term loans, loans with an income ratio reported and loans not made for a business purpose (our arithmetic).

Counties: Horry leads, and Charleston looks expensive because of one lender

Horry County (Myrtle Beach) is the largest place, with 535 loans, ahead of Charleston (334), Richland (258, Columbia), Greenville (212) and Spartanburg (168).

The 11 largest counties by DSCR-type loans, 2025

Charleston County has the highest median rate of any large county (7.75%), and a reader might take that as the price of a hot coastal market. The ranking shows otherwise. Citadel Servicing Corporation made 118 of the county's 334 DSCR-type loans (35.3%) and 87.4% of all its own 135 loans in South Carolina were there. Its loans are all to entities, all 135 have a 30-year term, the median loan is $105,000, the middle half of its rates run from 8.625% to 10.5% (lowest 6.625%, highest 11.25%), and 96 of them are purchases. Without Citadel, Charleston County has 216 DSCR-type loans, a 7.25% median rate and a $315,000 median loan (our arithmetic). Citadel's loans also account for 87 of the 119 DSCR-type loans in the state priced above 10%, and for 91 of the 192 above 9%. The state median is the same with or without Citadel (7.375%), so one lender moves a county, not the state.

Our national ranking identifies Citadel Servicing Corporation as the legal name of Acra Lending and shows 1,687 DSCR-type loans nationally with a 7.5% median rate, so its South Carolina book is priced three points above its own national median (our arithmetic). We cannot say what product Citadel is selling in the state: the federal file shows a 30-year business-purpose loan with no income ratio, just like the rest of the group, at a price about three points higher. It may be a different credit tier, a different property type, or loans bought with a higher coupon; none of that is in the file. For a Charleston investor the lesson is practical: a "Charleston median" is a blend of two very different groups of loans, so ask for the rate on your own file instead of reading the county average. Kiavi's 51 loans in Richland County make a similar point on the other side: Richland's $145,000 median loan is the smallest of the five largest counties, and one platform lender wrote one in five of its loans (51 of 258).

The ranking: who makes DSCR-type loans in South Carolina

South Carolina's list is led by wholesale lenders that take loans through brokers, and it has less of a single leader than a heavy tail: the top 5 made 745 loans (28.6%), the top 10 1,222 (47.0%) and the top 20 68.0% (our arithmetic). Seven lenders made 100 or more, 53 made 10 or more and 25 made exactly one. Across the state 1,536 loans (59.0%) were submitted through brokers and 1,066 directly to the lender, with a similar median note rate either way (7.375% brokered, 7.3% direct).

Top 12 South Carolina DSCR-type lenders, 2025

What the ranking shows:

• The Grand Strand lenders are not the Charleston lenders. Angel Oak Mortgage Solutions made 79 of its 165 loans on the Grand Strand (47.9%) and none to entities; American Heritage Lending (34 in Horry), Hometown Equity (32), LendSure Mortgage (32) and A&D Mortgage (22) are also Horry-heavy. Citadel is a Charleston lender (118 of 135) and Kiavi a Columbia one (51 of its 116 in Richland County). Pick the comparison set by place before comparing rates.
• Borrower type sorts the lenders. Citadel, RCN Capital and Kiavi lent only to entities; United Wholesale, Angel Oak, HomeXpress, Hometown Equity, American Heritage, Velocity and A&D Mortgage lent to natural persons (our arithmetic from the applicant-age field, where 8888 means the applicant is not a natural person). Read this as how each lender reports, not as proof of who signed.
• Direct lenders in the top 12. RCN Capital, Hometown Equity and American Heritage reported no brokered loans, and Kiavi 15%; the rest took 78% to 100% through brokers.
• The rate spread among the top 12 (excluding Citadel and Velocity) is 0.51 points. A&D Mortgage's median is 6.99% and United Wholesale's and American Heritage's 7.5%: $63.98 a month on a $185,000 loan (our arithmetic). Citadel's 10.5% and Velocity's 9.865% (the figure Velocity reports in other states) reflect different loans; do not compare them with the rest.
• Loan size and mix separate lenders. American Heritage ($125,000), RCN Capital ($135,000) and Velocity ($145,000) have the smallest medians among the large lenders; Hometown Equity and Champions Funding ($225,000) the largest.
• Interest-only shares differ. RCN Capital (17.6%), Hometown Equity (12.4%) and Angel Oak (11.5%) put the most into interest-only; United Wholesale, Kiavi and Velocity none. Statewide 215 loans (8.3%) were interest-only.
• Emporium TPO's terms. Emporium TPO (39 loans, 7.375% median) reports its 30- and 40-year terms in years instead of months. We counted its 38 loans reported as 30 years as 360 months and one reported as 40 years as 480 months, as our national, New York, New Jersey and Arizona pages do. Read literally, South Carolina would show 2,563 loans instead of 2,602, which is the count on our South Carolina hard money page; the extra 39 are Emporium's.

Kiavi, Visio, LendingOne, Lima One, Velocity and RCN in South Carolina

Platform lending is a sixth of the market: the six platform names that wrote DSCR-type loans made 428 of the 2,602, 16.4% (our arithmetic), and 161 of those have no county in the file. Kiavi Funding reported 116 DSCR-type loans at a 7.25% median, out of 535 conventional first-lien investor loans; 419 were short-term loans, the product on our South Carolina hard money page. Kiavi is a bridge lender here more than a rental lender, so a Kiavi flip borrower will often refinance elsewhere (see the BRRRR method). Lima One Capital made 44 DSCR-type loans of 137 investor loans; 93 of the rest were short-term. See our Kiavi review, Visio versus Velocity versus Kiavi, LendingOne, Lima One and RCN Capital for the companies themselves.

Largest South Carolina lenders by conventional first-lien investor loans, 2025, with their DSCR-type count

Rank by DSCR-type loans, not investor loans. Rocket Mortgage, The Conway National Bank, Lennar Mortgage and Anderson Brothers Bank are among the largest investor-property lenders in the state and made one or no loan that passes our DSCR-type filter, because their investor loans fail at least one of the tests (business purpose, no income ratio, 30-year term). Banks show up lower on the real DSCR list instead: Ameris Bank (22 DSCR-type loans), Northpointe Bank (12) and First Reliance Bank (7) are the largest lenders with "Bank" in the filed name. For the lenders at the top that we have reviewed, see Hometown Equity Mortgage and Velocity.

What rates did the market price? South Carolina 2025

The middle half of South Carolina DSCR-type borrowers paid between 6.99% and 7.875%, with the 10th percentile at 6.625% and the 90th at 8.625%. Of the 2,597 loans with a rate, 811 (31.2%) were at 7% or less, 458 (17.6%) above 8% and 192 (7.4%) above 9%; the lowest was 5% and the highest 11.25%.

South Carolina DSCR-type loans, 2025 (federal HMDA data, our arithmetic)

The premium over income-qualified business-purpose investor loans is 0.25 points (7.375% against 7.125%), and it cannot be read as the price of the ratio test: the two groups differ in loan size and lender. By purpose, purchases were 47.7% of the loans (1,242), cash-out refinances 33.3% (867) and no-cash-out refinances 14.0% (364). South Carolina's median is the same 7.375% as New Jersey's and 0.125 points above New York's on our New York page, with the same definition; the Southern neighbors with their own pages are North Carolina and Georgia.

DSCR-type loans by loan size, 2025

DSCR-type loans by number of units, 2025

Unlike the northern states in this series, South Carolina's DSCR lending is overwhelmingly single-family: 233 loans (9.0%) were on two- to four-unit buildings, against 39.8% in New Jersey on our New Jersey page. A third of the loans (870) were under $150,000. For the minimum ratios lenders apply, see DSCR loan requirements.

Monthly principal and interest on the $185,000 median loan, 30-year fixed, at each South Carolina 2025 rate (our arithmetic)

A borrower at the 25th percentile pays $48.18 a month less than one at the median, and the median borrower $63.63 less than one at the 75th (our arithmetic). The same arithmetic on the typical loan in two parts of the state gives different pictures: the Charleston tri-county median of $235,000 at 7.375% is $1,623.09 a month and needs $2,028.86 of rent for a 1.25 ratio on principal and interest, while the Columbia-area median of $155,000 at 7.375% is $1,070.55 and needs $1,338.18. These are note rates at origination in 2025, not today's quotes; see DSCR loan rates 2026 for the current picture and our DSCR calculator to put in your own rent and taxes. The 1.25 ratio is an illustration; lenders set their own minimums, and real ratios also count taxes and insurance, which is where South Carolina has its own rule.

The South Carolina line that changes the ratio: 6% for a rental, 4% for a home

A DSCR lender divides rent by a payment that includes property tax, so how a state assesses a rental matters as much as the note rate. In South Carolina the assessment ratio depends on who lives in the house. We read Section 12-43-220 and Section 12-37-220 of the South Carolina Code on the Legislature's site on October 30, 2026. We quote short phrases and give our reading, not legal advice.

South Carolina provisions that bear on a DSCR loan (statute text read October 30, 2026)

What this means in numbers, using only the ratios (we did not obtain a millage rate, so we do not give a tax bill): for a rental worth $250,000 the taxable assessed value is $15,000 at 6%, against $10,000 for the same house as a legal residence at 4% (our arithmetic), before the owner-occupied school-operating exemption that a rental does not receive. For a DSCR borrower the practical points are three. Ask the county assessor or the lender's underwriter for the real tax figure for a property that was owner-occupied, because the seller's bill may reflect the 4% ratio and the school-operating exemption, and the rental's bill will not. Section 12-43-220(c)(2)(vi) says that after a change in ownership or use “Another application is required by the new owner”, so a buyer does not inherit the seller's 4% ratio automatically. And note that an appraiser's or lender's tax estimate on a purchase is not always the post-sale figure; we did not verify how any lender in the list estimates it.

On prepayment, the statute we read protects consumers, not investors: Chapter 10 of Title 37 applies, by its scope section 37-10-101, to loans “other than consumer loan transactions” except where a section is limited to a personal, family or household purpose, as 37-10-103 is. A DSCR loan to an LLC for a rental has no statutory prepayment right in the chapters we read; the prepayment penalty term is whatever the note says, and HMDA does not report it (it is NA on all 2,602 loans). Read the penalty schedule before you pick a rate, and see how to refinance a DSCR loan. Foreclosure, licensing and the deed recording fee are covered on our South Carolina hard money page, which we do not repeat here.

Who borrows as an individual, who as an entity

Of the 2,602 loans, 1,800 (69.2%) went to natural persons and 802 (30.8%) to entities, using the applicant-age field (8888 means the applicant is not a natural person). Medians are the same (7.375%), the entity median loan is smaller ($145,000 against $195,000), and purchases are 55.8% of natural-person loans (1,004 of 1,800) against 29.7% of entity loans (238 of 802).

DSCR-type loans by note rate and borrower type, 2025 (our arithmetic)

The entity tail is one lender. All 87 entity loans above 10% and 91 of the 92 above 9% are Citadel Servicing's. Outside Citadel, one entity loan was priced above 9%. Do not read the entity column as the price of an LLC; it is the price of Citadel's loans. For the LLC route, see our DSCR loan LLC page and LLC for rental property.

Who got denied

The federal file also lists denied applications. Counting applications that ended in an origination or a denial and passed the same filter, 766 of 3,368 were denied: 22.7% (our arithmetic), higher than the 19.2% on our New Jersey page. Withdrawn applications and files closed for incompleteness are in other categories that we did not count.

First denial reason reported on denied DSCR-type applications, 2025

Collateral, the property, is the leading reason (31.9% of denials), which is consistent with a loan underwritten on the asset. Debt-to-income appears only 44 times because the group is defined by having no ratio reported. Lender-level denial rates in this file are unreliable for some lenders, because their denied applications carry terms that differ from their closed loans, so we do not rank lenders by denial rate. Compare states on our DSCR denial page.

How we read the federal file

The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) file lists every loan a reporting lender originates and every application it denies, with its note rate, amount, loan-to-value, purpose, county and lender. We used the 2025 South Carolina file of originated and denied loans from the FFIEC HMDA Data Browser, downloaded October 30, 2026: 189,347 rows, all occupancies. Of the 9,741 originated investment-property loans, 9,293 had 1-4 units; after removing reverse mortgages and open-end lines, 9,079 remained, and 8,913 were conventional first liens. Of those, 6,121 were made for a business purpose, 4,064 of them with no debt-to-income ratio reported (NA). The 2,602 DSCR-type loans are the 30-year-or-longer part of that group. The remaining no-DTI loans are short-term loans (982 at 36 months or less, excluding Emporium TPO, median 10.49%) and loans with terms between 37 and 359 months. The loan term in HMDA is in months, so 360 means 30 years. Rates reported as NA (5 loans) are left out of the rate statistics. Percentiles use linear interpolation. The occupancy-mix tables use every originated conventional first-lien loan on a one- to four-unit home (68,520 loans), not only the business-purpose ones. We used the same definition and counting method as our New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Arizona and Tennessee pages, and the extract of the 2,602 loans is saved with the data file.

Limits, so you can weigh the numbers:

• A proxy, not a census. HMDA does not mark DSCR loans. Other no-debt-to-income business loans fall into the group, such as bank-statement or asset-based loans, and DSCR loans reported with a ratio or a shorter term do not.
• Rates, not prices. Discount points, total loan costs and the prepayment-penalty term are NA on all 2,602 loans; the file has no credit score, rent or DSCR ratio.
• Entity is our reading. We count applicant age 8888 as an entity (802 loans). Of those, 788 also carry sex code 4 (not applicable); a lender can report an individual guarantor differently.
• Second homes are consumer loans in this file. Of 4,244 second-home loans, 29 are flagged business-purpose; the file does not show rental use, short-term rental use or rent.
• Regions are our grouping. The seven regions and their county lists are ours, not official definitions; small-county medians rest on a few dozen loans, so read them as direction. 164 loans have no county.
• One lender can move a county. Charleston County is shown with and without Citadel; other county medians were not tested the same way.
• Denials are a rough measure. The 22.7% counts applications by the same filter, but a denied application has no closed loan to define it, and lenders fill in denied applications differently.
• Rounded amounts. Loan amounts are rounded in the public file, so medians land on round figures.
• One year. This page uses 2025 only; we did not compare it with 2024.
• Lender names are as filed. Corporate groups can file under several names (RCN Capital files under two identifiers), and lenders below the reporting thresholds are missing.
• Law was read from the Legislature's text without a currency date. Sections 12-43-220, 12-37-220 and 37-10-101 to 37-10-106 were read on scstatehouse.gov on October 30, 2026; the pages do not show a "current through" date, and we did not check 2026 session acts for amendments, so any change is not verified. We read statutes, not cases or county assessor practice.

What a South Carolina investor can do with this

1. Pick the comparison set by place. On the Grand Strand Angel Oak (79 loans), United Wholesale (36) and American Heritage (34) lead; in the Charleston tri-county Citadel (118), United Wholesale (31) and HomeXpress (30); in the Upstate United Wholesale (55) and HomeXpress and Angel Oak (38 each); in the Columbia area Kiavi (63) and United Wholesale (41). A lender with a few dozen loans near you has done the work you are asking for.
2. Get three quotes from different channels. A broker-fed lender such as United Wholesale or Angel Oak, a direct lender such as Hometown Equity or American Heritage, and a platform lender. Among the top 12 (excluding Citadel and Velocity) the lowest and highest medians are 6.99% and 7.5%, worth about $63.98 a month on $185,000 (our arithmetic).
3. In Charleston, ask for the rate on your file, not the county average. The county median of 7.75% mixes a 10.5% group and a 7.25% group.
4. Underwrite the tax at the rental ratio. Section 12-43-220 assesses a rental at 6% and an owner-occupied legal residence at 4% with a school-operating exemption. Do not copy the seller's tax bill into your DSCR math.
5. Rank by DSCR loans, not investor loans. Rocket Mortgage made 254 investor loans in South Carolina and one that fits the filter; Kiavi made 535 and 116 fit.
6. Ask for the cost sheet and the prepayment schedule. Points, fees and the prepayment penalty are not in HMDA, and the statutory prepayment right we read covers consumer loans only. Ask for both in writing before paying for an appraisal; our DSCR versus conventional comparison shows how to compare.
7. If the plan is a coastal rental, say so. A second-home loan and an investor loan are different products. Read short-term rental loans and tell the lender the intended use up front.

FAQ

Related reads: South Carolina hard money lenders, and the North Carolina, Georgia and New Jersey DSCR pages; the New Jersey page uses the same federal definition.

Loan-level data: FFIEC/CFPB HMDA Data Browser, originated and denied loans for South Carolina, 2025, downloaded October 30, 2026 (request URL, extract and counting script saved with the data file); field definitions from the FFIEC HMDA LAR data fields page; lender names from the FFIEC 2025 filer list; counties from the Census Bureau 2020 county list. Law: South Carolina Code of Laws, Sections 12-37-220, 12-43-220 and 37-10-101 to 37-10-106, scstatehouse.gov, read October 30, 2026. All counts, shares, medians, percentiles and payment figures are our arithmetic. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice, and not a loan offer.