Minnesota Commercial Real Estate Loans: Deed & Mortgage Taxes

Commercial property loans in Minnesota use the same programs as every other state — SBA 504, DSCR loans, bridge loans, bank and life-company permanent loans. What Minnesota changes is that the state taxes both the deed and the mortgage, so the loan itself carries a tax; that foreclosure can run out of court but leaves the owner a six-month right to redeem; and that large buildings in the Twin Cities metro now report their energy use, with a statewide C-PACE program to pay for upgrades.

Two taxes at closing — one on the loan

Minnesota's deed tax is 0.0033 of the net consideration — 0.33% of the price. The mortgage registry tax is 0.0023 of the debt the mortgage secures — 0.23% of the loan — and the statute makes the borrower liable for it. Hennepin and Ramsey counties add an Environmental Response Fund tax of 0.0001 to each, so the rates there are 0.34% and 0.24%.

Example: a $2,000,000 building bought with a $1,400,000 loan.

• Deed tax: $2,000,000 × 0.0033 = $6,600 ($6,800 in Hennepin or Ramsey County)
• Mortgage registry tax: $1,400,000 × 0.0023 = $3,220 ($3,360 in Hennepin or Ramsey County)
• Total: $9,820 — or $10,160 in Minneapolis's or Saint Paul's county

That sits between the light end and the heavy end of the state guides here: Colorado charges $200 on the same example and Florida $21,700. Because the mortgage registry tax is figured on the loan amount, a larger loan means a larger tax — it is a borrower closing cost to put in the sources and uses, and worth checking again when you compare a lower down payment against a higher one. Who pays the deed tax is set in the purchase contract.

Foreclosure by advertisement — with time on both sides of the sale

A Minnesota mortgage with a power of sale can be foreclosed by advertisement under chapter 580, without a lawsuit. The notice of sale runs in a newspaper for six weeks, and a copy is served on whoever occupies the property at least four weeks before the sheriff's sale. Two rights stand out for a borrower. Before the sale, the mortgagor, the owner or a junior lienholder can reinstate the loan by paying what was actually in default when the foreclosure began, plus interest, taxes, insurance and the costs the statute allows (Minn. Stat. § 580.30). After the sale, the mortgagor generally has six months to redeem by paying the sale price plus interest from the date of sale, and longer for certain older or agricultural mortgages (§ 580.23).

That is a very different calendar from Colorado, where the owner has no redemption right after the sale. The extra time is not free — interest and costs keep adding up — so if a refinance or sale is the way out, start before the notice runs. On any loan, read the personal guarantee and, on a non-recourse loan, the carve-outs that would turn on recourse.

C-PACE and building energy rules

Minnesota's C-PACE law is Minn. Stat. §§ 216C.435–216C.436: an implementing entity can run a commercial PACE loan program, and the owner repays through a special assessment collected with property taxes. The Saint Paul Port Authority runs the program statewide as MinnPACE, under joint powers agreements with cities and counties, at terms up to 20 years. C-PACE Desk, a BestLoanUSA site, tracks Minnesota's C-PACE status. Because the assessment sits on the tax bill, bring your existing mortgage lender in early.

Since 2023, Minn. Stat. § 216C.331 also requires energy benchmarking for buildings of 50,000 square feet or more that are served by an investor-owned utility in the seven-county Twin Cities metro, or by a municipal or investor-owned utility in a city of more than 50,000 people outside the metro. Buildings of 100,000 square feet and up reported first, by June 1, 2025; buildings of 50,000 square feet and up report from June 1, 2026, through the Minnesota Department of Commerce. For a lender, that data is part of the building's story — high energy use points to upgrade costs ahead, and C-PACE is one way to pay for them.

Where to start

Choose the program — SBA 504 for an owner-occupied building, a DSCR loan or permanent loan for an income property, a bridge loan for a transition — and add the deed and mortgage registry taxes to the closing budget. Size the loan with the commercial mortgage calculator. For financing that isn't tied to real estate, the Minnesota business loan guide covers SBA offices and state programs.

Ready to compare? Start a commercial real estate loan request — one application, compared across our lender network.

💡 BestLoanUSA compares bank, SBA, DSCR and bridge lenders for Minnesota commercial property. See how it works — no hard credit pull to start.

Sources: Minnesota Department of Revenue, Deed Tax Rate and Mortgage Registry and Deed Tax (Minn. Stat. §§ 287.035, 287.21); Minn. Stat. §§ 580.03, 580.23, 580.30; Minn. Stat. §§ 216C.435–216C.436 and Saint Paul Port Authority, MinnPACE; Minn. Stat. § 216C.331 and Minnesota Department of Commerce, Large Building Energy Benchmarking. Checked 2026-10-07.