A representative from the Renaissance group wishes to generalize the portability clause to real estate loan offers. A measure favorable to borrowers, but which is unlikely to see the light of day. Explanations.
The portability of a real estate loan from one property to another: the idea has something to appeal, in particular to owners who took out a real estate loan between 2017 and 2021, the time when rates were between 1% and 1.5%.
In any case, this is the wish expressed by Damien Adam, Renaissance deputy, in a bill tabled in the National Assembly on May 2, 2024. After seeing the production of loans drop by 34.7% between 2022 and 2023 according to the Bank of France, the delivery of real estate loans reached its lowest rate in 10 years with 7.6 billion euros of housing loans disbursed by banks in January 2024.
Faced with this observation, the number of real estate sales fell by 22% over the whole of 2023. Conversely, in 2017, the record amount of 275 billion euros in home loans was recorded, when rates were attractive, we can read in the explanatory memorandum.
To counter this phenomenon, the MP therefore wishes to generalize the so-called property loan portability clause. Today optional, this clause can be introduced into the real estate loan offer in order to allow the conditions of the loan to be maintained when purchasing a new property after the sale of the previous one. Which means that a borrower having benefited from a rate of 1% for the purchase of a property in 2021 could benefit from this same rate when purchasing a new property in 2024, while the average rate over 20 years is currently 3.80% in May 2024.
A clause available until 2016, but since disappeared
Portability would allow owners who wish to acquire a new property to continue using the credit taken out when purchasing their current property if that is their wish, rather than having to first repay their initial loan, then take out a new one. , confirms the text, which considers that this measure would make it possible to simplify and limit the procedures for acquiring a new loan and to avoid the seller-owner having to pay early loan repayment penalties.
If the measure was referred to the Economic Affairs Committee, it seems to have little chance of succeeding. If the portability of real estate loans was offered by certain banks until 2016, Finding a loan with this clause is almost mission impossible today. Faced with the cost of money, the banks ultimately preferred to stop offering this transfer.
When banks buy money to finance your loan, they base themselves on the fact that you will keep it for around 8 years [la dure moyenne de dtention d’un crdit, NDLR] so they will set the rate according to the 10-year OAT. When this rate increases, it means that the cost of the resource will increase. So they have no interest in offering this loan transfer, which costs them too much, explained Cécile Roquelaure, spokesperson for the broker Empruntis, in a MoneyVox article on the subject.
In addition, the latest scales of banking establishments show a drop in real estate loan rates. And several observers estimate that these could continue to decline in 2024 and then in 2025. A situation which would therefore render the interest in such a measure obsolete.