Data
SBA 7(a) Loan Sizes by Industry: Why Some Businesses Get Seven-Figure Approvals
The average SBA 7(a) loan in FY2025 was about $477,000. Hotels, gas stations, veterinary and dental practices and car washes routinely clear that, and the reasons say a lot about how lenders decide how much a business can borrow.
Which Industries Get the Largest SBA 7(a) Loans?
Published analyses of the SBA’s FY2025 7(a) approval data report median approvals of about $2.2 million for hotels and motels, $1.24 million for gas stations, $707,500 for veterinary practices, and $500,000 for both dental practices and car washes, against a program-wide average of roughly $477,000. These are mostly acquisition and real-estate loans to established operators, not working capital, and they are not a guide to what a short-term loan or merchant cash advance will provide.
The Numbers
The SBA approved 77,600 7(a) loans for $37 billion in fiscal 2025, the program’s largest year on record, which works out to an average of roughly $477,000 per loan. Averages hide the shape of the program: more than half of approvals are small-dollar loans under $150,000, while a minority of large acquisition and real-estate loans carries much of the dollar volume. Industry medians show where those large loans concentrate.
| Industry | Reported median 7(a) approval, FY2025 | What is usually being financed |
|---|---|---|
| Hotels and motels | $2.20 million | Property purchase, refinance, brand-mandated renovation (PIP) |
| Gas stations and c-stores | $1.24 million | Station purchase including real estate, tank and dispenser work |
| Veterinary practices | $707,500 | Practice purchase, partner buy-in, build-out, equipment |
| Dental practices | $500,000 | Practice purchase, buy-in, equipment and fit-out |
| Car washes | $500,000 | Acquisition, express-tunnel conversion, equipment |
| All 7(a) loans | ≈ $477,000 average | Every purpose; over half of loans are under $150,000 |
Industry medians as reported in published analyses of the SBA’s FY2025 7(a) approval data; RAN Funding has not recomputed them from the raw dataset. The program average is calculated from the SBA’s FY2025 totals of 77,600 loans and $37 billion.
Why These Industries Borrow More
Three things push an industry’s median up, and the five above have at least two of them each. The first is real estate. A hotel or a gas station is usually bought with its land and building, so the loan is a commercial mortgage with a business attached, and 7(a) allows terms up to 25 years when real estate is the largest component. The second is the acquisition cycle. Dental and veterinary practices change hands constantly as owners retire and associates buy in, and a practice purchase is priced on years of collections, not on the equipment inside. The third is the borrower profile: a licensed professional with a high earning floor and a recurring clientele is a low-default file, and lenders lend more to files they expect to be repaid.
Risk still shows in the pricing and the paperwork. A May 2026 PeerSense analysis of 2.1 million SBA loans reports default rates of about 4.1 percent for veterinary practices and 4.6 percent for dental practices, against roughly 13.9 percent for car washes and 14.9 percent for gas stations. Practices get the easiest approvals at the lowest rates; stations and washes get large loans too, but with environmental reports, traffic studies and more equity in the deal.
What an SBA-sized Figure Means, and What It Does Not
NerdWallet’s 2026 Small Business Loan Study, drawn from businesses financed through its Fundera marketplace between July 2024 and June 2025, found that SBA and medium-term loans delivered the largest average amounts while short-term loans, short-term lines of credit and merchant cash advances were the products most commonly approved. That is the whole picture in one sentence: the largest money comes from the slowest, most documented products, and the fastest money comes in smaller amounts.
A dental practice with a $500,000 median SBA approval is not a dental practice that can take a $500,000 merchant cash advance. Revenue-based products are sized on a few months of deposits and repaid within months; SBA loans are sized on years of tax returns and repaid over a decade. Use the industry medians to decide whether an SBA file is worth building, not to set expectations for a same-day product.
The practical question for an owner is which side of that line their need sits on. Buying the building, buying the practice, converting the wash: SBA, and accept the weeks. Covering a supplier draft, a payroll gap or an equipment quote that expires Friday: a working capital product or equipment financing, and accept the cost.
What a Seven-Figure SBA File Needs
The documentation is the price of the terms. Most lenders want the business’s cash flow to cover the proposed payment by about 1.25 times, and they verify that from the returns rather than from a projection.
- Two to three years of business and personal tax returns, plus a current profit-and-loss statement and balance sheet.
- A purchase agreement and a valuation or appraisal for any acquisition or real-estate deal.
- An equity injection of around ten percent on a change of ownership, sometimes met partly through a seller note.
- Industry-specific reports: a Phase I environmental assessment for a gas station, a traffic study for a new car wash, a brand approval and PIP budget for a hotel, a licence and resume for a practice buyer.
- A schedule of every open position, including equipment leases and any existing advance, which the lender may require to be paid off at closing.
Expect several weeks from application to funding. If the deal has a hard date, a bridge or a term loan from the lender network can hold it together while the SBA file completes; RAN Funding places both and shows you the cost of each before you commit.
One application covers every product in the network. Check your options — about five minutes, three months of statements, and a soft inquiry only.
Common Questions
Can a business get an SBA loan for working capital alone?
Yes. 7(a) proceeds can be used for working capital, and many small-dollar 7(a) loans are exactly that. The seven-figure medians above, though, are dominated by acquisitions and real estate; a working-capital-only 7(a) request for an established business is typically far smaller.
Why is the dental median lower than the veterinary median?
The reported figures describe FY2025 approvals, and a single year’s median reflects the mix of deals closed that year: how many were practice purchases with real estate versus equipment and buy-ins. Both industries are among the SBA’s lowest-default categories and both routinely see six- and seven-figure approvals.
Do these figures apply to a merchant cash advance or a short-term loan?
No. Revenue-based products through RAN Funding are sized on recent monthly deposits, start at $10,000 and typically run to the low or mid six figures. Use the SBA medians to decide whether building a full SBA file is worthwhile, not as an estimate of a same-day product.
How long does an SBA 7(a) acquisition loan take?
Several weeks from a complete application to funding is typical, longer when environmental reports, appraisals or franchise approvals are involved. A bridge from the lender network can carry a time-sensitive purchase while the SBA file completes.
Sources
- SBA Delivers Record Capital to Small Businesses in FY25 (News Release 25-83) — U.S. Small Business Administration, 30 September 2025
- 7(a) & 504 Activity Reports: FY2025 Year End — U.S. Small Business Administration, FY2025 year-end data
- SBA 7(a) Loan Statistics: Approval Rates, Averages, and Trends — Crestmont Capital, 27 March 2026
- 2026 SBA Lending Report: 2.1M Loans Analyzed — PeerSense, May 2026
- 2026 Small Business Loan Study — NerdWallet, 2026 (Fundera marketplace data, July 2024 to June 2025)
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