Real estate loans: the governor of the Banque de France calls on the French to “test” their banker

With the rapid increases in interest rates made since 2022 by central banks to try to tame inflation, “real estate credit production has fallen to a very low level, the latest figures are a little disappointing,” admitted François Villeroy de Galhau on franceinfo.

“But I believe that today it is no longer a problem of credit supply,” he continued. “The banks have put themselves back in a position to make real estate loans.”

“There is perhaps still this question about banks which no longer lend. I really believe that you have to go and test your banker,” insisted the governor of the Bank of France.

“Moreover, if we ever have a refusal, we have asked the banks to put in place a re-examination procedure” of credit requests, he recalled.

For François Villeroy de Galhau, the French are "remaining fairly wait-and-see" on the real estate market. But this wait-and-see attitude is not necessarily explained by the hope of seeing housing prices fall in the coming months.

Beyond the price of housing and interest rates, a real estate project is also decided "according to personal variables", like the buyers' "family project".

More generally, the difficulties of the real estate sector, “which was doing very well” before 2022 when interest rates were at their lowest, are not only linked to “financing and credit”, argued the governor.

“There are standards, problems of land supply... When the Prime Minister (Gabriel Attal, Editor's note) spoke of simplifying, of debureaucratizing, I believe that there is really something to grind,” concluded François Villeroy de Galhau.