Real estate loan: how much can you gain by renegotiating your loan in 2025?

Mortgage rates have fallen by almost a point in the space of a year. Or the minimum difference to make a loan renegotiation interesting. Especially in very specific cases.

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After quadrupling between the start of 2022 and the end of 2023, real estate loan rate have continued to decline for a year. Wouldn’t the time have come to renegotiate the interest rate on your loan? “For a renegotiation to be interesting, the difference between the new rate and the old one must be at least one point”regularly reminds Maël Bernier, spokesperson for the broker Better rates. This is almost the case today, with a credit rate at 3.30% on average over 20 years, compared to 4.20% a year earlier, according to Vousfinancer.

Certainly, buyers who have taken out credit at a rate of more than 4% are not legion. At this time, in the fall of 2023, “the banks had just reopened the tap for real estate credit, the production of which was then very low”, recalls Sandrine Allonier, spokesperson for Vousfinancer. But “a renegotiation may prove interesting today for households who wanted to buy almost a year and a half ago and who fell into debt at high rates because their financing records were not good enough”she judges.

A saving of more than 150 euros per month by renegotiating your rate

More broadly, “the greater the amount and duration of the loan, the more interesting it is to renegotiate your interest rate”indicates Sandrine Allonier. In fact, the larger the amount borrowed, the higher the interest to pay. And like “it is at the beginning of the loan that we repay the most interest”renegotiating the rate less than 18 months after taking out the loan is anything but absurd, believes the Vousfinancer spokesperson. Let us take the case of a loan of 400,000 eurossubscribed in September 2023 at the rate of 4.4%, over 25 years, corresponding to a monthly repayment of 2,200 euros. If the borrower renegotiates it in January 2025, at the rate of 3.30%, his monthly payment will drop to 2,047 euros. Either a saving of more than 150 euros per month, and 43,650 euros in total over the duration of the loan.

This overall saving can be even greater if the borrower takes advantage of the new, more advantageous rate to reduce the duration of his credit, rather than his monthly payment. In the case of the loan of 400,000 euros at 4.40% over 25 years, renegotiated at 3.30%, the saving rises to 63,528 euros if the borrower reduces the duration of the credit to 21 yearswhile keeping its monthly payment of 2,200 euros.

Beware of costs associated with renegotiation

For a “small” loan of relatively short duration, renegotiation is of less interest. Thus, for a loan of 100,000 euros over 15 years, taken out at a rate of 4% in September 2023 and renegotiated to less than 3% in January 2025, the monthly payment decreases by only 13 euros. And we must not forget the costs associated with a renegotiation, starting with the prepayment penalties owed to the first bank, to the extent that a loan is generally renegotiated with a second bank, which repurchases the initial loan. Penalties that Sandrine Allonier estimates at 8,534 euros in the case of the renegotiation of the loan of 400,000 euros. To which are added 2,000 euros of brokerage fees and 4,655 euros to have the new loan guaranteed, by Crédit Logement for example.

“At this stage, we mainly have inquiries about credit renegotiations”testifies Ludovic Huzieux, co-founder of Artémis Courtage, while recognizing “send some files to the banks”. A trend which should accelerate if the fall in mortgage rates continues, he believes. “The renegotiations will be even more advantageous if rates fall to 3%, and I think the banks can reach this threshold”confirms Sandrine Allonier. While “suspicious” of France’s 10-year borrowing ratewhich is close to 3.50%, and on the basis of which banks set their mortgage rates.