Despite their fall since the peak of more than 4% reached two years ago, real estate loan rate always exceed 3%. A threshold which is not only psychological since it has the consequence of “give back homeownership particularly difficult for first-time buyers”underlines MP Lionel Causse (Together for the Republic) in the explanatory memorandum of an amendment to the Social Security financing bill for 2026 (PLFSS), currently being examined in public session by the National Assembly.
Co-signed by several other deputies from different political parties, such as Valérie Rossi (Socialists), Mickaël Cosson (Democrats, co-author of the parliamentary report last June on the tax status of the private lessor), Christelle Minard (Republican Right) or even Anne-Cécile Violland (Horizons), this amendment puts the spotlight on a system that is more than 100 years old but little known to the general public: the payment of all or part of the employee’s property loan interest by their employer. “Certain companies, aware of this difficulty (of their employees in accessing the property), support them by covering part of the interest on their property loans. This support can reach on average 1,728 euros per year»develops Lionel Causse.
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A little-known system because of its tax treatment
This mechanism was created in 1921 by the financial company for home ownership (Sofiap), a subsidiary of La Banque Postale and SNCF. Initially limited to public companies, it was extended at the end of 2022 to the private sector. No less than 600,000 employees are now eligible for this systemcumulative with the zero interest loan of the State and the Action Housing loan at 1%both also reserved for people purchasing their primary residence for the first time.
Have you never heard of it? It’s normal! Sofiap partner companies pay 55% social security contributions on the loan interest they take on. This device being “considered a benefit in kind heavily burdened for the employer, it remains marginal due to its unincentive tax treatment»explain Lionel Causse and the co-authors of the amendment.
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12,000 real estate loans in the first year
The latter therefore proposes that the sums paid monthly by employers to cover all or part of the interest on a property loan taken out by a first-time employee be exempt from social security contributions. With the exception, however, of the generalized social contribution (CSG), the contribution to the repayment of the social debt (CRDS) and a social package at the rate of 20%. Furthermore, this payment of loan interest cannot exceed an annual amount equal to 8% of the annual social security ceiling, i.e. 3,709 euros in 2025. This is exactly what the bill transpartisan “aimed at strengthening the purchasing power of first-time employees”tabled on March 18 by a group of deputies led by Valérie Rossi, but which has not yet been examined by Parliament.
According to Sofiap’s estimates, cited in the explanatory memorandum of the amendment, such a system could finance 12,000 loans in the first year and concern more than 170,000 households over eight years. Arguments which convinced the general rapporteur of the PLFSS to the National Assembly, Thibault Bazin (Right Republican), very involved in housing issues. The Minister of Public Accounts, Amélie de Montchalin, on the other hand, gave an unfavorable opinion to Lionel’s amendment, accusing him of “create a social niche”. The amendment was nonetheless adopted by the National Assembly. A first victory for its co-signatories but there is still a long way to go before the promulgation of the PLFSS.
