While waiting for the PTZ 2025, banks are providing loans at rates between… 0 and 2%

While waiting for the finance bill for 2025 to deliver, a priori, a zero-rate loan extended to houses and relaxed areas, banks are teeming with alternatives.

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The new house of your dreams in Nogent-le-Roi, you thought you would finally acquire it in 2025, thanks to the expansion of the zero-interest loan (PTZ) to individual houses and relaxed areaswhere the demand and supply of housing are balanced, as in your pretty town of Eure-et-Loir. The government of Michel Barnier promised this extension of the PTZ as part of the finance bill for 2025 (PLF). Weary! The Barnier government’s censorship interrupted the examination of the PLF by Parliament.

It will resume this Wednesday, January 15 and the Minister of Housing, who kept her position in the Bayrou government, is still pleading for this widening of the PTZ. But this will probably not take place for several months, with the finance law for 2025 first having to be promulgated, then the decree relating to the PTZ published. In fact, the conditions of eligibility for the zero-interest loan, reserved for first-time buyers provided they do not exceed certain resource ceilings, are set each year by a decreeusually published in December of the previous year.

More and more loans at subsidized rates

“For the second year in a row, we are starting a first quarter without the decrees setting the conditions of eligibility for the PTZ”sighs next to Capital Ludovic Huzieux, co-founder and general manager of Artémis Courtage. Last year, the decree relating to the PTZ was published only in April, the initial finance law for 2024 having refocused it on the purchase of new apartments in tense areas. But the banks have taken the lead this year: “we are in such a political slump that certain credit establishments extend home loans at subsidized rates (lower than average market rates, Editor’s note), which they had planned to stop at the end of 2024, and which others are putting in place such offers”he observes.

Its competitor Vousfinancer also notes, “the extension or establishment of loans at subsidized rates for the first half of the year” 2025. While “the zero-interest loan has not yet been extended, more and more banks are granting first-time buyers loans at rates between 0 and 2%»specifies Sandrine Allonier, spokesperson for Vousfinancer. Loans whose amount does not exceed 10% of the main real estate loan financing the acquisition, with a ceiling of 30,000 euros, she adds.

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A reduction of 10,000 euros in the cost of credit

Sandrine Allonier cites a loan of 30,000 euros over 15 years, at a rate of 2.85%, accessible if one of the borrowers is aged under 35 years old. Another example, a loan of maximum 25,000 euros, spread over 25 years, at the rate of 1.99%, only for first-time buyers. Also reserved for those buying their first home, a third loan offers a rate of only 1%, for an amount borrowed capped at 10% of the main loan, up to 30,000 euros. The duration of this additional loan is identical to that of the main loan, up to 25 years. “Benefit from a loan of 30,000 euros at 1%, in addition to a loan of 300,000 euros at 3.3% over 25 years, this reduces the total cost of the credit by 10,000 eurosthe equivalent of a rate cut of 0.20 points! »underlines Sandrine Allonier.

Other subsidized rate loan offers have the counterpart of energy performance of the housing purchased. Vousfinancer refers to a loan representing 10% of the amount of the main loan, with a ceiling of 30,000 euros, at a rate of 0%, over a duration equivalent to that of the main loan, for the purchase of a new property including the DPE ( energy performance diagnosis) is A, B or C. The Caisses d’Epargne and Banques Populaires offer a rate reduced from 0.10 to 0.30 points for the purchase of a thermal strainer E, F or G if the borrower undertakes to improve the DPE by two notches within 40 months.

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Banks conquering first-time buyers

“For banks, the objective of these subsidized rate loans is to distinguish themselves from the competition, often strong in the regions, and to attract first-time buyers, with whom they will be able to establish a long-term relationship. As they are actively conquering customers via real estate credit, they maintain or put in place these very advantageous loans for young borrowers, who can thus see the total cost of their credit drop significantly”deciphers Sandrine Allonier. “These loan envelopes at rates below those of the market prove the banks’ willingness to lend, while waiting for the green light on the expansion of the PTZ”confirms Ludovic Huzieux.