The Financial Sector Advisory Committee (CCSF) considers that the French system of financing the purchase of a main residence mainly through fixed rate credits has “demonstrated its robustness”.
While the housing crisis revived debates on ways to revive the real estate marketa long-awaited report from the Financial Sector Advisory Committee (CCSF) comes reinforce the French model of real estate credit.
Seized in 2024 by Bruno Le Maire in order to study possible developments in financing home ownershipthe organization ultimately concludes that the current foundations of the system offer guarantees of stability and protection that it would be risky to call into question.
A French model considered solid
Bruno Le Maire, then Minister of the Economyhad asked the CCSF to engage “a reflection on the French model of financing the acquisition of housing, establishing a comparison with neighboring countries“. This mission was intended in particular to assess the advantages and limitations of certain mechanisms used abroad, starting with variable rate loanswhose monthly payments evolve upwards or downwards throughout the duration of credit. The minister also wanted to examine the relevance of measures such as portability or transferability of real estate loansregularly presented as avenues likely to streamline the residential market.
However, after several months of work, the CCSF has chosen to reaffirm its attachment to the current system. In the recommendation which accompanies its report, the organization underlines that its members “affirm their unanimous attachment to the French model of financing the acquisition of the main residence, in its main characteristics, shared with other countries but unique in their combination“. According to the CCSF, this architecture has largely proven itself over the decades. The committee considers in fact that the French system “has demonstrated its robustness, the default rate for loan repayments having remained very low for decades, particularly compared to what it can be in other nearby countries“. An appreciation which reinforces the fixed rate credit model, largely dominant in France and often cited as a protective factor for households.
The solutions rejected by the CCSF
The report, on the other hand, appears much more reserved on the developments regularly mentioned in order to revive the real estate market. THE members of the CCSF notably examined the loan portabilitywhich allows a borrower to maintain the conditions of his credit when purchasing a new home after the sale of the previous one, as well as the transferability, which authorizes the transfer of the loan to the new buyer of the property. These measures were defended in 2024 by the National Real Estate Federation (Fnaim), which saw them as a way to facilitate transactions in a context marked by rising interest rates. Banking establishments, however, expressed strong reservations, fearing a more complex management of outstanding credit.
The CCSF’s conclusions ultimately agree with this analysis. According to the committee, these mechanisms “do not constitute viable avenues for improving access to credit to finance one’s main residence“. Their generalization would risk in particular make loan management more complex without providing a significant response to the difficulties of access to property.
The committee also studied the recourse to credit ultimatelyformula in which the borrower repays the capital in one go at the maturity of the loan. Again, the conclusions are cautious. The CCSF considers that this type of financing “does not constitute a generalizable solution for access to property“, believing that he “present (…) higher cost and risk for households“.
