After the usury rate, a new battle is brewing around the rules conditioning access to credit. And once again, the banks have just scored a point, Bercy having announced that it is considering easing for the month of June.
Faced with a drop in the granting of real estate loans, the ministry wants to ensure that the standards aimed at protecting against over-indebtedness “do not become an obstacle to access to credit”says Bercy in a statement sent this Tuesday, April 4 to AFP and which confirms information from “Echos”.
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“At the request of the Minister (Bruno Le Maire), evaluation work is being carried out in conjunction with the Banque de France, the HCSF (High Council for Financial Stability, which involves, among other things, the Ministry of ‘Economy and the Banque de France, editor’s note) and all the actors concerned “continues Bercy the day after a meeting with the French Banking Federation and a month after the High Council has deemed the current rules satisfactory.
Under what conditions can one obtain a mortgage?
Since January 1, 2022, French banks must meet certain criteria, defined by the HCSF, to grant a mortgage: an effort rate, i.e. the total amount of housing-related expenses compared to income, of 35% maximum and a debt period of 27 years at most in certain cases (such as work prior to moving in).
However, establishments have the possibility of derogating from these criteria for 20% of loans, provided that these derogations essentially concern the acquisition of a main residence and aim in a third of cases to support first-time buyers.
If changes were to be announced, they would be announced at the next HCSF meeting in June.
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The rest to live
Questioned by AFP, the French Banking Federation (FBF) underlines that the “day-to-day implementation” HCSF criteria “can be complex in management”.
“The profession shares Bercy’s proposal to open a dialogue on the subject”she adds, while evoking “granting criteria specific to the banks which are perfectly adapted and would allow them to take on more customers”.
Behind this formulation, the FBF evokes without directly mentioning the remainder to live, a criterion regularly defended by the banks, and which in certain cases could replace the rate of effort.
Unlike the debt ratio, this takes into account the amount of money left to households for their current expenses, after the payment of debts.
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Real Estate 2023: the new rules of the game
This method of calculation, so far ruled out by the HCSF, in particular because deemed too subjective, rather favors high incomes.
If nothing is yet recorded, this declaration of the ministry marks a new inflection, after the“technical adjustment” the calculation of the wear rate decided in January and which now exceeds 4%.
This rate, which caps all the costs of a home loan, was accused of restricting access to credit by preventing banks from lending more expensively, during a period of sharp rise in rates.
After months of pressure and a demonstration by brokers in front of the Banque de France, the public authorities finally decided to recalculate this wear rate every month, until July 1, and no longer every quarter, in order to raise it. faster.
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Numbers War
Whether to ease or not, in fact reveals the clash between various players regarding the health of the real estate sector.
Faced with professionals in this sector who are sounding the alarm, saying they fear a collapse, François Villeroy de Galhau, rather evokes a normalization after a record year 2021.
Fewer French people are likely to be able to become owners in 2023
According to the CSA/Credit Logement Observatory, the number of loans granted fell by 20.5% compared to the previous year, when the Banque de France communicated on a drop of 3%.
For the Ministry of Economy, “The decrease in credit distribution is primarily due to the rise in interest rates and the return to a long-term trend after an exceptional year, particularly in terms of loan renegotiations”.
More “As regards the HCSF standard, the Minister is very attentive to feedback from the field and therefore wishes to ensure that this standard, which aims to achieve financial stability by avoiding excessive indebtedness, does not become an obstacle to the access to credit and therefore to property for solvent households”.
