Long confined in recent years to a savings product, the Housing Savings Plan is gradually regaining its primary purpose, which is to supplement the financing of a real estate project through a loan at the regulatory rate. The ELP can even be described as a tool for constituting a personal contribution with a view to acquiring or improving housing.
Up to €92,000 over a maximum of 15 years
It is only after a savings phase of at least 4 years that the holder of a PEL has access to a mortgage at a preferential rate. This loan can be used to finance the purchase or construction of a home and also works, but its amount is capped at €92,000 over a maximum period of 15 years. The amount of this home savings loan is calculated according to the interest acquired during the savings phase, which allows you to build up a personal contribution by imposing regular payments (€45 per month or €540 per year at least).
The borrowable amount depends on the total interest earned
However, it is not easy to realize how much you can borrow, knowing that you have to make substantial payments on your PEL (the ceiling is €61,200) to benefit from a significant loan over a long period. The calculation therefore depends on the total gross interest acquired on the date of the last anniversary of the plan. This acquired interest can be viewed on his account statement and corresponds to loan rights. From these loan rights, it is possible to obtain the borrowable amount according to repayment terms ranging from 2 to 15 years.
The real estate loan broker Meilleurtaux offers, for example, a simulator which summarizes this information from the date of opening of your PEL and loan rights. The opening date determines the preferential rate of the home savings loan, which is currently 2.20% for plans opened since August 2016.
Simulation
For a PEL opened in April 2018 with €535 of loan rights, which already presupposes having made a significant deposit at the opening given the low rate of return for this generation of PEL at 1% gross, we cannot borrow only €17,386 at 2.20% over 15 years, €26,219 over 10 years or €52,436 over 5 years. The maximum amount of €92,000 is only accessible in this example over a period of 2 years, which would mean repaying nearly €4,000 per month.
to know
If you have a medium-term real estate project, purchase or work, it may be interesting to open a PEL before the end of the year to benefit from this right to a housing savings loan at 2.20%. This borrowing rate is indeed becoming very competitive despite the low remuneration (1% gross) of this generation of PEL. From January 1, 2023, the borrowing rate will increase to 3.2% with the new generation of PEL (paid 2% gross).