At the end of its meeting yesterday, the HCSF, a body chaired by Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Economy and Finance, did not announce any relaxation of its recommendations, but “technical adjustments”, as it indicated, on the allocation of the 20% flexibility margin to which banks are entitled and on its management.
At a time when loan production fell by 45% in April over one year according to the latest figures from the Banque de France, will these measures help to encourage banks to lend more? Response elements.
Have the HCSF rules been relaxed?
The maximum household debt ratio remains at 35%, loan insurance included, and the credit period still capped at 25 years (27 years if it is a new purchase).
These recommendations, issued by the HCSF, have become binding standards since 1is January 2022. They were therefore not modified yesterday in order, according to the HCSF, “to contribute structurally to the security of mortgage loans. »
Since 2021, banks have benefited from a margin of flexibility, i.e. a percentage of files for which they can derogate from these two rules. It is fixed at 20%.
Within the framework of this envelope, 80% of the margin must make it possible to finance the purchase of principal residences and only 20% must be reserved for investors, which represents only 4% of the total production of bank loans.
It is on this point that the HCSF has just made “a technical adjustment. »
Good news for investors
The flexibility margin is maintained as it is, but the share of financing for purchases excluding main residences – and therefore for rental investments – increases from 20 to 30% within this margin, which now corresponds to 6% of the total production of loans (and no longer at 4%).
“Investors were the first to be affected by the HCSF’s recommendations, underlines Julie Bachet, director of the broker Vousfinancer. Because firstly, they often already own their main residence, with a current loan which weighs on the debt, and secondly, the method of calculating the debt has evolved, moving from a differential calculation to a classic calculation. , with a less favorable consideration of rental income. They will now be able to borrow a little more easily. »
Same observation on the side of the broker Empruntis. “Investors strongly impacted by the 35% rule will have a little more access to credit, but this is still insufficient, because in the end few of them will benefit from it, indicates Cécile Roquelaure, director of studies at Empruntis. For example, a bank that makes 100 files over the quarter will only be able to meet the criteria for 20 of them. Among these 20 projects, only 6 borrowers will have financing… All the others will have to meet the criteria! »
Will loan production pick up again?
According to Julie Bachet of Vousfinancer, “this system of flexibility margin is too restrictive, complicated to pilot and we see that it does not work… It is certain that the announcements of the HCSF will not allow the recovery of the production of credits. »
The banks must already apply this margin of flexibility, “not easy to use”, as Cécile Roquelaure of Empruntis also thinks. Off, at 1is quarter of 2023, the banks only used this margin of flexibility at only 13.8% overall, according to the HCSF. And only 3% of their total production was granted outside the criteria to investors, while 4% are authorized.
In addition, the credit market is facing a drop in demand. With credit rates close to 4%, the borrowing capacity of households (the amount that can be borrowed for a constant monthly payment) has fallen by 24% compared to 2021 when the rates were at 1%, estimates Vousfinancer .
To compensate for this loss, it is necessary to be able to borrow more, by increasing the monthly payment of credit and its debt ratio, to borrow over a longer period or even to benefit from an equivalent drop in prices.
“For now, the state can only act on the first two levers, but it has clearly chosen not to! », remarks Sandrine Allonier, spokesperson for Vousfinancer.
2023-06-28 23:12:18
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