On Wednesday April 10, the Finance Committee of the National Assembly was in favor of a bill to facilitate access to real estate credit. Initially, the latter aimed in particular to modify the 35% debt rule dictated by the High Council for Financial Stability (HCSF). However, some credit professionals deplore the adopted text.
It was a day awaited by many real estate loan professionals. On Wednesday April 10, the finance committee of the National Assembly was to examine a bill proposed by Renaissance deputy Lionel Causse. This proposal, favored by the government, aimed to supplement the provisions applicable to the High Financial Stability Council (HCSF), with the aim of relaxing the rules for obtaining a real estate loan.
The deputies who proposed this proposal first wanted to see an increase in the number of people sitting on the HCSF, from 8 to 10. The two new members will be a deputy and a senator, designated respectively by the President of the National Assembly and the President of the Senate. . To the extent that, since January 1, 2022, HCSF decisions have become binding, as such they constitute true macroprudential standards. It therefore seems necessary to include elected representatives from the national representation, considers the commission, which gave its approval on this point.
However, it is article 2 that credit professionals hoped to see adopted. Initially, the latter was to allow lending institutions to free themselves from the effort rate rule when they are able to demonstrate that the proposed assistance does not present a risk of excessive debt. In the original version, the banks therefore had to demonstrate that the proposed credit did not present a risk of excessive debt, no longer based solely on the effort rate, but also on the notion of remaining life.
Real estate credit: this rule for having a loan is very strict, should it be modified?
But the commission has largely revised this article. In the new version, we can thus read that the HCSF, in setting the conditions for granting credit, must ensure that it preserves the capacity of the financial system to ensure a sustainable contribution to economic growth. On a proposal from the governor of the Banque de France, he will have to set the conditions in which banks will be able to waive these decisions, taking into account variations in credit supply and demand. The decisions of the HCSF will be taken for a maximum period of 3 months, which may be renewed if the conditions which justified their implementation have not disappeared, after consultation with the CCSF.
The notion of remaining alive vince of the bill
It is therefore not the banks themselves, but rather the governor of the Banque de France, Franois Villeroy de Galhau, who will have the last word, even if, in the interests of transparency, the deputies also noted that the proposal of the governor of the BdF concerning the setting of the conditions for granting credit by the HCSF must be made public.
It is therefore difficult to speak of a victory in favor of a relaxation of the rules of real estate credit, as the governor has been insisting for months that these rules are common sense criteria to avoid household over-indebtedness and that the relaxation already took place last year, banks can now deviate from it in 20% of files.
For the professional association CNCEF Crdit, the proposal adopted today no longer meets the urgency of the moment. This bill, on the contrary, complicates what already resembled a gas factory by establishing an additional floor. While the initial proposal offered banks a possibility of exemption depending on the borrower’s remaining living, this notion has simply disappeared. for the benefit of accounting management of supply and demand. And what can we expect from a Governor who has opposed any change for months?, deplores CNCEF Crdit.
Adopted in committee, the text must now be debated in a session on April 29 at the National Assembly. While waiting for the rest of the saga, let borrowers reassure themselves: month after month, mortgage rates continue to fall, to now settle below 4%. A breath of fresh air for many borrowers, who will be able to relaunch their property purchase plans.