Between 100,000 and 150,000 households may very well be disadvantaged of mortgage, in 2020, estimated the economist Michel Mouillart in the course of the presentation, on January 29, of the 2019 stability sheet of the Observatory of loans to households, an annual research carried out within the request of the French Banking Federation (FBF). In its line of sight: the continuing tightening of entry circumstances for debtors. In a press launch dated February three, the Banque de France needed to be extra measured: “Entry to mortgage loans will likely be maintained and credit score will proceed to develop, in France, on more healthy and extra sustainable bases. “
2019 was a flourishing 12 months on this space. The quantities of actual property loans granted reached 258 billion euros, or 21% greater than in 2018. A surge which might be defined by the document degree of actual property transactions (greater than one million within the former) and, above all, traditionally low charges, granted for lengthy intervals. The common stood at 1.13% total, and 1.33% for loans over twenty-five years, in keeping with figures from the Housing Credit score Observatory.
A debt price capped at 33%
From the primary days of 2020, nevertheless, the banks turned off the straightforward credit score faucet on the request of the Excessive Monetary Stability Committee (HCSF), a physique chaired by the Minister of the Economic system. This establishment really useful to them to not grant any extra loans of a period superior to 25 years, which was the case of 5% of the loans subscribed in 2019. It additionally asks to not exceed the speed of effort (indebtedness versus revenue) by 33% for all debtors. Nearly 25% had been on this case, in September 2019, together with many traders shopping for a property to lease it.
This time, the HCSF alert was accompanied, not like the earlier ones, by threats of sanctions, corresponding to making these suggestions obligatory or demanding from lenders extra fairness. To keep away from an abrupt rupture, the HCSF nonetheless tolerates that 15% of information exceed these two standards, with the goal of favoring first-time patrons, however not traders.
“Probably the most penalized are younger folks with low wages”
If these suggestions are adopted to the letter, the variety of debtors ought to, as Mr. Mouillart calculated, lower by 10% in 2020, or between 100,000 and 130,000 households out of the 1.33 million which, in 2019, purchased a house, whether or not outdated (a million) or new (330,000). The discount within the common period of newly subscribed credit is already, originally of February, measurable: 5 months lower than in December 2019, to 227 months (i.e. eighteen years and eleven months). The common quantity of non-public contribution has elevated by 11% since 1st January 2020.
