Home loans fall in 2022, with rising rates growing

"Such a fall had not been seen since the fall of 2008, at the height of the international financial crisis from the United States", point out the authors of this study, a reference in the sector. Over the whole of 2022, the number of loans granted decreased by 20,5% compared to the previous year.

This sharp decline should be put into perspective with the increase observed in 2021 of 3,8%, according to the same source.

This deterioration which gives an "exceptional character" to the year 2022 according to Michel Mouillart, professor of economics in charge of the presentation of the results of the study, is in particular linked to the "successive increases" of the main refinancing rate of the ECB mi -September, early November and to a lesser extent on December 21, and an insufficient revaluation of the wear rate on October 1.

The wear rate caps all the costs of a home loan: credit rate charged by the bank, any brokers' commission, borrower insurance. For months, some real estate players have accused him of blocking access to credit for certain households.

"The supply of credit has therefore not been able to recover sufficiently, unlike what is usually seen at the beginning of autumn", analyze the authors.

The average rate of loans granted by the private sector was 2,22% in the fourth quarter of 2022, compared to 1,05% for the same period in 2021 and 1,17% in 2020.

In October, it crossed 2% for the first time in seven years, to 2,05%, according to the observatory.

We have to go back to 2016 to see a comparable rate, up to 2,07%.

The duration of new home loans in December 2022 runs for almost 21 years (248 months).

In total, 65,2% of bank loans for home ownership were granted for a period of between 20 and 25 years, compared to 55,2% last year.

The personal contribution in a real estate purchase continues to increase, but less strongly than in 2021 (+12,3% against +13,2%).

It has increased by 43,5% in four years, which corresponds to an additional contribution of 7 months for borrowing households whose income does not exceed three times the amount of the minimum wage, against 1,5 months for those whose revenues exceed it by at least five times.

Crédit Logement is a finance company specializing in the guarantee of real estate loans intended for private homes, based on criteria such as the solvency of the borrower or the value of the property.