Real estate loan: is it in your interest to renegotiate your loan rate now?

Motivated to win over customers, banks have significantly reduced the rates on their real estate loans. A handful of borrowers may begin to renegotiate their credit. For others, you will have to be (a little) more patient.

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Sharp drop in rates, banks winning over customers, increasing credit production… What if it was the right time to renegotiate your property loan? The cost of money has been on a downward trend since the start of the year. Loans over 20 years are granted on average, before negotiation, at 3.55% over 20 years in November, details the broker Empruntis. At the peak of rates, in January 2024, banks charged their loans at around 4.3%. “But only a few borrowers can start renegotiating their loans”warns Maël Bernier, spokesperson for the broker Meilleurtaux.

For the moment, only a few lucky people can boast of being eligible for a loan repurchase, as evidenced by statistics from the Banque de France. Only 1.8 billion euros of loans were renegotiated in September, a level which has barely changed since the start of the year. For a loan renegotiation to be interesting, the difference between the old and new rates must be at least equal to 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%. That is to say a level very close to the ceiling reached in January 2024, a month during which only 9.7 billion euros of loans were distributed by the banks. “This therefore only concerns a small stock of files”confirms Sandrine Allonier, spokesperson for the broker VousFinancer.

2025 as a horizon for renegotiation

And again, even these files eligible for renegotiation are not certain of achieving their ends. “After only one year of loan repayment, the capital that the household will have to borrow, after adding all the loan redemption fees, will probably exceed the value of the property. Which can scare the bank, continues the expert. The rule is therefore to wait at least two years before renegotiating”.

The advice of brokers: wait a few more months, when rates have fallen further. “The decline is not over and it is still slightly premature to renegotiate the rate. By the end of the year, 20-year loans are expected to reach 3.2%, and this will be a good time to start renegotiating,” predicts Maël Bernier. Good files can even obtain a rate of 3%, adds Sandrine Allonier. The opportunities will be even greater in 2025. The Crédit Logement CSA Observatory expects average rates to be 2.75% at the end of next year.

The reduction in the successive deposit rate of the European Central Bank, to 3.25%, in fact encourages banks to lend more. This pushes them to offer better rates if they want to win over customers. With some analysts predicting a further cut in ECB rates by December, the banks should continue to go to war, to the delight of borrowers.