While the Lemoine Law, implemented in the summer of 2022, removed the health questionnaire for certain borrowers looking for a home loan, the first conclusions a year later are very contrasting. And the benefits for consumers put into perspective.
The Lemoine law, a boon for borrowers? This is what appears to be revealed in a report from the Financial Sector Advisory Committee (CCSF) published on Monday January 15. As a reminder, law n2022-270 of February 28, 2022 for fairer, simpler and more transparent access to the borrower insurance market, supported by MP Patricia Lemoine, has allowed since September 2022 to cancel your mortgage insurance at any time. moment to choose another, and also removes the health questionnaire provided that the insured portion of the cumulative outstanding credit contracts does not exceed 200,000 euros per insured.
Only 23% of loans made without health questionnaires
Good news, a priori, for many borrowers, and in particular for people with an increased health risk who were subject to over-pricing of loan insurance. . At the time of granting, 58.5% of credit subscribers presented an insured amount on their credit transaction of less than 200,000 euros, notes the CCSF in its report. Except that the Lemoine Law established another parameter: the obligation to repay the loan before the borrower’s 60th birthday. An obligation which significantly changes the situation: The ceiling of 60 years, at the end of the loan, significantly reduces the scope of application of the abandonment of medical selection, explains the CCSF. Thus, out of 58.5%, only 23% of contracts were eligible for the absence of medical selection.
Real estate credit: How to borrow without a health questionnaire?
For Milie Ruben, marketing and communications manager at Scurimut, this low proportion of contracts without a health questionnaire is not a surprise: The objective of the law was to simplify the subscription of borrower insurance in order to facilitate access to credit and that the proportion of borrowers not subject to the medical questionnaire corresponds to the initial estimates of this systemshe recalls in the opening remarks.
Are the banks playing the game of without a health questionnaire?
The fact remains that this average hides disparities. If 23% of insurance contracts issued by banking groups were taken out without medical selection, this share rises to 27% among alternative insurers. A number that thunders, while banks still have the majority of the market today. According to the CCSF report, the competition’s market shares increased from 15.3% at the end of 2021 to 16.1% in 2023, thus leaving 83.9% of the market to bancassurance insurers.
However, there is no reason why banks should pay less attention to borrowers who are exempt from health questionnaires, Ruben further notes. Are the banks really playing the game of without a health questionnaire? At Scurimut, we are regularly confronted with borrowers reporting that their bank conditions their credit on the provision of external insurance exempts from medical selection, reveals the alternative insurer in a press release published on January 16. Banks obviously have information on the health of their customers thanks to the information processed for the credit study, and do not hesitate to direct risk profiles towards external insurance, which further reinforces anti-selection and distortion of credit. competition.
Real estate credit: what risk do you risk lying on your borrower insurance declaration?
It is therefore still difficult today to take full advantage of the end of the health questionnaire for real estate loans. The study (of the CCSF Editor’s note) highlights (…) practices of price discrimination between contracts with and contracts without medical selection, to the detriment of the latter, indicates Crdit Mutuel Alliance fédérale, which also fears a two-speed market.
According to a study by MoneyVox, carried out at the beginning of 2023 using data from 51 contracts from banking and alternative players, the prices of Lemoine contracts, that is to say without a health questionnaire, the prices had then increased between 18 and 20% in average.
But the Lemoine Law nonetheless remains a fantastic tool for lowering the cost of your real estate loan. In fact, it allows you to change borrower insurance at any time with an alternative provider who is often less expensive.
If the CCSF estimates that for two thirds of customers, the price difference is either favorable to the group contract (in 32% of cases), or less than 2000 euros over the entire duration of the credit (for 36% of credit subscribers), this which represents a monthly saving of only 8.50 euros for an average loan of 20 years, the figures provided by the alternatives are very different.
So, Magnolia.fr reports an average gain of 10,000 euros. For its part, the broker Meilleurtaux ensures that on average on the files it took charge of in 2023, the saving was 24,500 euros on average by changing loan insurance.