banks ready to discuss

With a total of 129 billion euros, the amount of new real estate loans granted in 2023 by banks fell to its lowest level since 2015. And the trend observed in recent months is still downward, according to the latest figures communicated by the Bank of France. This problem fuels the housing crisis for households and penalizes all real estate players. The Minister for Housing, Guillaume Kasbarian, and the Minister for Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, are due to discuss it with banking representatives at the end of February.

Several avenues are being considered, there are different types of credits granted which can serve as leverage. First, what we call the “ultimate” loan. This particular credit dissociates the payment of interest and the repayment of capital. This means that the borrower pays the interest on the loan each month and only repays the capital once, at the end of the loan. This leaves time to put money aside to repay “ultimately”, rather than every month. This type of loan remains very little marketed by financial institutions. The other variant is the mortgage loan with which the borrower pledges real estate already in his possession to provide additional guarantee to the bank and facilitate the procedures.

Banks issue reserves

The French Banking Federation expresses some reservations about the advantages of these products and, above all, their real impact on access to property which the government intends to facilitate. Nothing is simple in this matter, but the bank representatives accept the hand extended by the public authorities and will discuss. All this comes at a time when building prices are starting to fall a little and with the prospect of interest rates starting to fall this year. The terrain is therefore a little more favorable than it was just a few months ago.