The Banque de France has published updated usury rates for the fourth quarter of 2022. They are on the rise, at more than 3% for all durations : a significant increase which should make it possible to unblock numerous credit files and make the real estate market more fluid.
Good news : for the fourth quarter of 2022, wear rates mark a significant increase, going from 2,60% at 3,03% for property loans between ten and twenty years and 2,57% at 3,05% for loans over twenty years or more, while most professionals were counting on an evolution around 2,85% to 2,90 %. “This increase in wear rates is significant and higher than our forecasts. Such an increase, by almost half a point, is new ! It should make it possible to unblock a certain number of current credit files and to apply the rate scales currently offered., most between 1,80 et 2,40% on all durations, but which until now exceeded the usury rates and therefore led to refusals.", explains Julie Bachet, general director of Vousfinancer, network of 200 real estate loan brokerage agencies.
Next update of wear rates in January
“With a wear rate of 2,57% over twenty years and over, credit files with more than 1,90% sometimes had difficulty passing for borrowers over 40 years old. Or, very few banks today offer rates lower than 2%... From now on, it will be possible to obtain a loan agreement from a greater number of banks, offering rates up to 2,40 %. However, credit rates should not rise in the coming weeks, otherwise the benefit of the increase in usury rates will be canceled and the situation will again be the same as last summer., calculates Sandrine Allonier, spokesperson for Vousfinancer. On the other hand, “if the increase in wear rates is very good news, it could only be short-lived. In a context where the ten-year government borrowing rate reaches more than 2,75 %, where bank refinancing rates increase, particularly under the effect of the evolution of the Central Bank's policy which could again increase its rates by 75 basis points in October, there is a risk that banks will continue the movement of rising rates initiated since the start of the year. Result, in a few weeks the usury rates will again be too low and the share of refusals will increase again... We will have to wait until January 1st for the usury rates to adjust again.", warns Sandrine Allonier.
