A return to normal that will cost investors dearly. House, apartment, land, main or secondary residence… If you are planning to buy and you have set your sights on a particular property, you will have to hurry to borrow. Because, from the month of July, your project could cost you much more, or even pass you by. Indeed, to stem inflation, the European Central Bank intends to increase mortgage rates. Invited this Friday, June 10 in the program Good Morning Business on BFMTV, the governor of the Banque de France has just launched the alert.

“We are going to return to more normal rates. Everyone has forgotten it a little but usually, the mortgage is rather around 2 to 3%”, recalls François Villeroy de Galhau. A level that has not been reached since 2014.

However, this “return to normal” will greatly impact the French financially. To get an idea of ​​the extent of this budgetary impact, the continuous news channel takes the example of a couple without debt receiving 3,600 euros in total income per month. Knowing that the debt ratio does not go beyond 35%, this means that this couple cannot exceed a maximum monthly payment of 1,260 euros.

In the best situation, their bank can, at present, grant this household a loan at the rate of 1.5%, over 20 years. He can thus borrow 246,000 euros. If the rate were to double, here is the real estate purchasing power it could lose.

For this same credit, in the event of a change in the rate to 3%, announced by the Governor of the Banque de France, the borrowing capacity of this couple would drop significantly. With the same monthly payment of 1,260 euros, the couple will only be able to obtain 216,000 euros, instead of 246,000. That is 30,000 euros less, corresponding to a reduction of 12%. Their investment could then be abandoned. It seems difficult to negotiate such a sum with the seller.

Could this rise in rates also have an effect on selling prices?

The increase in rates could thus considerably melt the real estate purchasing power of the French. This could then suggest a fall in real estate prices. For the time being, the buyers have not yet revised their ambitions downwards. From this summer, however, the market could be affected.

In this context, should we then invest before the rise in rates, taking advantage of a historic gap with the level of inflation, or rather wait until prices collapse?