Make an appointment in your bank branch, collect the documents, multiply the e-mails… Obtain – then negotiate – a real estate rate in a bank is no picnic!
By trying your luck in an online bankThere is no guarantee that you will get the lowest rate on the market, but at least you will be settled quickly.
Four online banks, ING, Boursorama, BforBank and Fortuneo, have the advantage of allowing all Internet users to carry out an online simulation, by playing with transparency on the rates, loan periods and possible monthly payments.
A practical approach, which also allows you to have a basis for negotiation with your usual banker or with your credit broker. The catch? Online banks are only positioned on “standard” files.
Old real estate, rather yes
A house or an apartment in the old, without work to be envisaged: this is the ideal file to obtain financing in these online banks. And this, whether the accommodation is a primary or secondary residence. As soon as the project deviates from this “standard” profile, things get complicated.
Thus, ING and BforBank do not provide for the financing of purchases with renovation works, which require the release of delayed funds. On the contrary, Boursorama and Fortuneo open the door to buying in the old with works. The four, however, refuse to fund “work alone”.
New real estate is more complicated
If you are targeting a home already built, no problem: online banks offer mortgage loans for this type of purchase in new buildings. Have you fallen for a home sold off plans by a real estate developer, but the construction of which has not been completed? Boursorama and Fortuneo finance what is called in the jargon the “sale in the future state of completion”, but not BforBank nor ING.
If you have an individual construction project, there you can turn directly to a traditional brand: no online bank is positioned on these long and complex files.
In addition, a project in the new is sometimes accompanied by a request for a zero rate loan (PTZ), but only one online bank finances loans including a PTZ: Monabanq. It has just launched its home loan offer but reserves it, for the time being, to its current customers.
Buy to rent, yes but …
Little by little, online banks are expanding the range of projects they are able to finance. This is the case of rental investment, which is now part of the real estate projects accepted by Boursorama, BforBank, ING and Fortuneo.
There is one catch: if you are investing in rental accommodation to reduce your income tax, online banking is not necessarily the right address. Only Boursorama Banque is positioned on these potentially restrictive issues.
Buying a parking lot or a lot is no!
More broadly, online banks systematically refuse to lend for the purchase of bare land, parking, or the redemption of a cash payment on the occasion of a divorce or an inheritance. All except one: Hello bank. The latter announces the possibility of financing any type of loan but, in fact, the borrower signs a loan contract with BNP Paribas, the parent company of Hello bank. This is the reason why the range of funded projects is much wider.
A loan for more than 25 years? Impossible !
Online banks only lend for low-complexity real estate purchases, and they only offer standard loan terms. You can expect to get a 7-25 year loan from an online bank, but the repayment term will never exceed 25 years. This certainly corresponds to the recommendations issued at the end of 2019 by the High Council for Financial Stability (HCSF), a body chaired by the Minister of the Economy.
But banks still have the right to make loans over 26, 27 or even 30 years, provided they limit the number of long-term loans. Loans over 25 years old, which are primarily intended for modest households buying for the first time, decreased in 2020 but they still represent around 1% of loans granted by banks according to the Crédit Logement-CSA observatory. However, in online banks, the 30-year loan is clearly unthinkable!
The professional profile of the borrowers to whom they grant loans obviously remains confidential, with online banks referring to their “internal granting policy”. But, here again, atypical profiles are more likely to be discarded than in a traditional bank: ideally, the borrower should therefore be on a CDI and have completed his trial period.
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