Home loan: at what maximum rate can a bank lend you money?

Good news: the maximum rate at which banks can lend money to their customers who want to become homeowners is falling. What is the limit set at the start of 2025?

Are you planning to buy real estate and take out a loan during the first quarter of 2025? The announcement of the new usury rates, applicable from January 1 to March 31, made by the Banque de France should delight you. In fact, the maximum rates for real estate financing are falling, due to a general decrease in real estate rates at the end of 2024. What are the new usury rates in force during the first quarter of 2025?

Wear rates down in the first quarter of 2025

5.67%: this is the new usury rate for fixed-rate property loans granted over a period of 20 years or more. A rate that includes not only the nominal rate of the loan, but also borrower insurance and costs related to financing. In other words: over 20 years or more, a bank cannot lend money at an overall interest rate higher than 5.67%. This legal limit applies for the entire first quarter of 2025, i.e. from January 1 to March 31.

For comparison, during the last quarter of 2024, the usury rate for fixed-rate property loans taken out over a period of 20 years or more was 5.85%, a decrease of 0.18% in space of three months. Between 10 and 20 years, the new usury rate for fixed rate home loans is now 5.80%. Below 10 years, the maximum legal rate is 4.61%. Bridging loans, for their part, are limited to 6.64%, and variable rate loans to 5.87%.

A reduction in wear rates linked to the overall drop in real estate rates

If wear rates are falling, it is no coincidence. In fact, these ceiling interest rates are calculated and published each quarter by the Banque de France (BDF) on the basis of the interest rates actually charged during the past quarter. In other words: the usury rates for the first quarter of 2025 are set taking into account the interest rates actually granted by banking and financial institutions during the last quarter of 2024.

More precisely, the usury rate corresponds to the average of the effective rates of the last three months increased by a third. However, real estate rates fell at the end of 2024, bringing in their wake a drop in usury rates. The effective rate of a fixed rate property loan granted over a period of 20 years or more thus reached on average 4.25%. Between 10 and 20 years, this average rate rose to 4.35%, and to 3.46% for a financing duration of less than 10 years.

Maximum rates that aim to protect borrowers

If the usury rate exists, it is above all to protect borrowers. In fact, this maximum rate prevents banks from charging interest rates that are too expensive in comparison with average interest rates. Criticized during the period of sharp rise in interest rates, the usury rate regains its full usefulness here, since it is a means of preventing certain future owners from taking out a real estate loan on conditions that are too far removed from reality. of the market.

Let us also remember that, during 2024, real estate loan rates have continued to fall, to the benefit of borrowers. According to the Meilleurtaux barometer updated on January 6, 2025, a good interest rate over a period of 15 years is 3.36%, 3.46% over 20 years and 3.54% over 25 years. Borrowers who manage to obtain an excellent rate, for their part, can hope to obtain 2.87% over 15 years, 2.94% over 20 years and 3.02% over 25 years.