For almost a year now, banks have been lowering their mortgage rates. A handful of borrowers can start renegotiating their credit. For the others, it will be necessary to be more patient.
Banks are back on the mortgage market. After two years of violent increases in mortgage rates, borrowers can finally breathe. The cost of money has been trending downward since the beginning of the year. “20-year loans are granted on average, before negotiation, at 3.55% over 20 years. At the peak of rates, at the end of 2023, banks were charging their loans at around 4.3%. But only a few borrowers can start renegotiating their loan”warns Maël Bernier, spokesperson for the broker Meilleurtaux.
The improvement in mortgage rates is still timid. For the moment, a few elected officials can boast of being eligible for a loan buyout, as shown by the statistics from the Banque de France. Only 1.7 billion euros of loans were renegotiated in July, a level similar to that observed at the beginning of the year. For a loan renegotiation to be interesting, the difference between the old and new rates must be at least 0.7 points. In other words, with rates at 3.55% over 20 years, a household can embark on the renegotiation process if it had obtained a loan at 4.25%. This is a level very close to the ceiling reached in January 2024, a month during which only 9.7 billion euros of loans had been distributed by the banks. “This therefore only concerns a small stock of files”continues Sandrine Allonier, spokesperson for the broker VousFinancer.
2025, the year of loan renegotiation
And yet, even those files eligible for renegotiation are not certain to reach their conclusion. “After only one year of loan repayment, the capital that the household will have to borrow, after adding all the loan redemption costs, will probably exceed the value of the property. Which can scare the bankcontinues the expertThe rule is therefore to wait at least two years before renegotiating.
Brokers’ advice: wait a few more months, when rates have fallen further. “The decline is not over and it is still slightly premature to renegotiate its rate. By the end of the year, 20-year loans should reach 3.2%, and that will be a good time to start renegotiating.”predicts Maël Bernier. Good files could even obtain a rate of 3%, adds Sandrine Allonier.
The recent drop in the European Central Bank’s deposit rate to 3.5% is indeed encouraging banks to lend more. Which is pushing them to offer better rates if they want to win over customers. With analysts predicting a further drop in ECB rates by December, banks are likely to continue to wage war on each other, to the great delight of borrowers.
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