Europe 1 with AFP 7:15 p.m., January 12, 2023

From March 1, the wear rate will be updated by the Banque de France every month instead of every quarter.

The reason: the pace was too slow, in the face of faster-moving interest rates.

According to the brokers, this system led to the refusal of "too many" loan requests.

The Banque de France is preparing to revise each month rather than once a quarter the rate of wear, the ceiling borrowing rate for mortgages intended to protect the buyer from abusive conditions, an "exceptional" measure for " make the market more fluid.

This rate caps all the costs of a home loan: credit rate charged by the bank, any brokers' commission, borrower insurance.

The monthly payment "supported" by the Mayor

For several months, interest rates have been rising in the wake of the key rates of the European Central Bank and faster than the usury rate, which makes it more difficult for individuals to access credit, according to financial professionals. real estate.

An increase in the usury rate offers a breath of fresh air to the market: it allows banks to lend more expensively, but also to each other component of the cost of credit (commission of a broker, borrower insurance, etc.) to be taken into account without exceeding the legal ceiling.

This ultimately allows the acceptance of more credit application files.

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It is currently calculated each quarter by the Banque de France, which takes into account the average rates charged by banks over the last three months increased by a third.

But the law provides for the possibility of "temporarily derogating from the calculation rule" in the event of "exceptional circumstances" and "this is what is being considered and discussed at the moment", explained Marie-Laure Barut-Etherington, director general. Assistant to the Statistics Department of the Banque de France, during a conference call.

The monthly payment is "supported" by the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire so that this ceiling adapts more quickly to market rates, said Bercy.

"The technical adjustment" would make it possible to recalculate the rate of wear and tear every month, taking into account the rates practiced the previous three months, with the objective of better distributing the increases and "fluidifying the production of credit", according to Ms. Barut-Etherington.

A change in the calculation method

“Instead of making this increase once at the end of the quarter with a big step… we would do three smaller steps,” Governor François Villeroy de Galhau summed up on Wednesday before the Senate Finance Committee.

Ministry of Economy and Finance, Banque de France, as well as bankers and brokers discussed the issue on Wednesday during a two-hour meeting.

The work "will continue next week," Bercy told AFP.

Formally, the Governor of the Banque de France will have to propose the monthly payment to the Minister of the Economy.

It "could start on February 1 or March 1", adds the ministry.

Such a change in the method of calculation - a first in the history of the wear rate which was implemented in 1966 - would also only be temporary and not an in-depth reform of the mechanism.

The new calculation method “could last one or two quarters”, explains a participant in the meeting on Wednesday Thursday to AFP, on condition of anonymity.

A rise in rates

The wear rate has been set since January 1 at 3.57% all costs included for a loan of 20 years and more.

The average credit rate (excluding insurance and ancillary costs) comes close: it is measured at 2.04% in December by the Banque de France and even at 2.25% in November by the CSA/Crédit Logement Observatory , after a very rapid rise in recent months.

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This rise in the rate has a cost for the borrower: for example, when the rate of a loan of 150,000 euros over 20 years goes from 1% to 2%, the amount to be repaid in fine goes from around 165,500 euros to more than 182,000 euros, i.e. some 16,500 additional euros.

The measure "will make it possible to unblock the granting of credit", welcomed Julie Bachet, general manager of the Vousfinancer site.

Even if this "risks contributing to the acceleration of the rise in credit rates".

Good news also for Brice Cardi, president of the network of real estate agencies l'Adresse, who notes that "in the last quarter of 2022, nearly half of our agencies had to deal with loan refusals leading to the rupture of the sale in progress".

"The monthly revision of the wear rate should help to facilitate the granting of credit and therefore to make the market more fluid", he judged.