The amount of new housing loans, excluding renegotiations, fell again in January, according to data from the Banque de France published on Tuesday, while public authorities are looking for solutions to revive the market.
The figure fell to 7.6 billion euros during the first month of the year, compared to 8.2 billion the previous month, the first time since autumn 2014. The amount has been divided by three since the peak in spring 2022 , more than 22 billion euros.
The average interest rate, excluding fees and insurance, for new home loans (excluding renegotiations) increases, according to the same source, from 4.04% in December to 4.17% in January. But be careful, the Banque de France itself warns that its January data (loan offers signed in January) relate to credits negotiated at the end of 2023: thus, the slight recovery at the start of the year (…) is not yet perceptible. Same observation on credit rates: Here too, certain leading indicators seem to indicate a turnaround.
3.99% in February according to the Crdit Logement-CSA Observatory
Thus, the data from the Banque de France differ from those from the Observatoire Crdit Logement/CSA, which indicate on the contrary a rebound in demand for real estate loans of 8.5% in January compared to December, with an average credit rate 4.15% in January, and even 3.99% in February, compared to 4.22% in December 2023.
The central bank’s statistics cover the entire market, unlike those of Crédit Logement, which are the result of restatement on the basis of partial data. But the latter can be closer to the ground since they are counted earlier in the financing phase, before the loan file is finalized by the bank.
How to revive the real estate loan?
The Minister of Ecological Transition Christophe Bchu recently appealed to banks to revive real estate credit, highlighting bullet loans and mortgage loans, proposals warmly welcomed by the French Banking Federation (FBF) and the Banque de France .
Other ideas are circulating: the National Real Estate Federation (Fnaim) has been supporting this for several months the transfragility and portability of loans to counter the sclerosis of the market. Transfrability allows an owner to keep, to finance his new acquisition, the loan he took out for the property he wishes to resell, thus retaining the initial loan rate and exempting himself from early repayment compensation. .
Portability consists of attaching the loan not to the borrower but to the property itself, allowing the transfer of the loan initially granted to the former owner for the benefit of the new buyer, specifies FNAIM. The High Council for Financial Stability (HCSF), deciding each quarter on the rules governing real estate credit, also meets on Friday.
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