Real estate loan: good news, rates are falling again, one bank is even offering less than 3%

The first real estate loan rate scales for January, sent by banks to brokers, show further reductions. The threshold of 3% seems on target for the first quarter and that of 2.5% for the end of 2025.

Capital Video: Real estate loan: good news, rates are falling further, one bank is even offering less than 3%

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“Today, if you are looking for a real estate loanyou find it!” It is certainly appropriate to present a correct file to the banks but this observation by a broker illustrates to what extent the situation has once again become favorable to real estate borrowers for a year, after the quadrupling of credit rates between the start of 2022 and the end of 2023. At the very beginning of January 2025, the first scales sent by banks to brokers show, for the 14th month in a row, “new rate cuts, between 0.05 and 0.20 points compared to December »testifies to Capital Sandrine Allonier, spokesperson for Vousfinancer. This brings the average rate for a 20-year mortgage loan to 3.20%, for example.

“One bank even offers a rate of 2.99% over 20 years, for the best filesemphasizes Sandrine Allonier, a first since March 2023”when rates had crossed the 3% mark upwards after having capped at 1% for several years. For the spokesperson for Vousfinancer, this is a “offer of appeal, of reconquest”, which shows that “the banks want to lend, that they are in the starting blocks”.

Banks in the starting blocks to lend

She also wants as proof that several credit institutions have sent their rate schedules for January to brokers “from Decemberin the wake of the drop in interest rates European Central Bank on December 12, while they usually send them to us around January 10, time to assess each other and adjust their commercial strategies. The banks informed us early of their scales so that we could send them financing applications as quickly as possible.”

“Banks continue to be ‘open’ in terms of real estate credit because they have not met their commercial objectives for 2024”confirms Maël Bernier, communications director at Meilleurtaux. So much so that“a major national bank has just lowered its rates by 0.15 points for all credit durations, which represents an effort all the more notable as theOAT at 10 years (equivalent Treasury bond, according to which banks adjust their rates, editor’s note) is at 3.20%”due to political uncertainties in France, notes Maël Bernier. For the Meilleurtaux spokesperson, there is no doubt that this example “will force other banks to fall in line”.

Rates at 2.50% at the end of 2025?

It therefore does not exclude the possibility that average property loan rates will return below the 3% threshold in the first quarter“provided that the OAT does not rise yet”. Sandrine Allonier also believes that “we are on the way to 3% in the first quarter”. Looking ahead to the end of 2025, their colleague Cafpi “betting on an average rate of 2.50%» on this horizon, “after a slow continuation of the decline in rates throughout the year”. “Competition between banks remains in place, with credit production objectives to be achieved”argues Cafpi, which was able to negotiate, for January and for the best profiles, rates of 2.80% over 10 years, 3.01% over 15 years, 3.05% over 20 years and 3.15 % over 25 years.

Rates more than 1% lower than those proposed in December 2023, when they peaked at more than 4%. “However, 1% difference, on a loan of 200,000 euros over 25 years, this represents a saving of 25,000 euros»calculates Cafpi. Coupled with the reduction in real estate prices, the drop in rates makes it possible to buy today 11.02 additional square meters in Reims, 9.32 square meters more in Nantes and around 8 additional meters in Lille, Montpellier , Strasbourg or Toulouse, compared to the end of 2023, on the basis of a monthly credit payment of 1,000 euros, details the broker. Those who want to buy real estate are not mistaken: “while the month of December is traditionally calm, it was very good at Vousfinancer, with a 30% increase in the number of mandates signed and a 40% increase in the amounts financed compared to December 2023”indicates Sandrine Allonier.