Here’s the quick version, the one you came for. Take your household’s net monthly income, multiply it by 0.35, then subtract whatever you already pay each month on other loans (car, consumer credit, that sort of thing). What’s left is the biggest monthly payment a French bank will sign off on – and yes, the loan insurance is counted inside that figure. Multiply that monthly amount by roughly 174 for a 20-year loan at today’s rates, and you’ve got a solid ballpark of your borrowing capacity. Five minutes, no appointment, no spreadsheet. That’s it.
Now, a ballpark is not a green light, and I’ll come back to that. But it’s enough to stop you from falling in love with a flat you’ll never finance – or, the opposite, from underestimating yourself and renting for three more years for no reason. If you want to sanity-check the wider French market before you run the numbers, resources like https://residencedesbains.fr walk through the buying steps in plain language, which pairs nicely with what we’re about to do here.
The 35% rule, and why almost nobody explains it properly
Since 2022, French banks have to play by rules set by the HCSF (the financial stability watchdog). Two of them matter to you. First, your total debt payments can’t go above 35% of your net income – and that ceiling includes the borrower’s insurance, which trips a lot of people up. Second, the loan can’t run longer than 25 years (27 in a few specific new-build cases). That’s the box. Everything happens inside it.
So when people ask “how much can I borrow”, the honest answer is : it depends almost entirely on your monthly income and your existing commitments. Not on how badly you want the place. The bank starts from your payslips, not your dreams. A bit blunt, sure, but it saves a lot of heartbreak.
Turning a monthly payment into a real number
Knowing your max monthly payment is half the job. The other half is converting it into a borrowed amount, and that depends on the rate and the term. In June 2026, average rates sit around 3.25% over 15 years, 3.40% over 20 years, and 3.50% over 25 years, with the strongest profiles still grabbing something close to 3.10%. Insurance adds roughly 0.10 to 0.40 points on top, depending on your age and health.
Here’s a rule of thumb I find genuinely useful. For every €1,000 of monthly repayment at today’s rates, you can borrow about :
– €142,000 over 15 years
– €174,000 over 20 years
– €202,000 over 25 years
See the trade-off ? Stretch the loan and you borrow more for the same monthly effort. But you also pay interest for longer, so the total cost climbs. Longer isn’t free – it just moves the pain around.
A quick example, because numbers stick better than theory
Say you and your partner bring home €3,500 net per month combined, with no car loan or credit running. 35% of that is €1,225. Knock off, let’s say, €70 a month for insurance, and you’ve got around €1,155 left for the actual repayment. Multiply by 174 (the 20-year figure) and you land near €201,000 of borrowing capacity.
Add your down payment on top – the average French buyer put down about €79,000 in 2026, first-timers closer to €54,000 – and that’s your real budget. Not the loan, the budget. People mix those two up constantly, then wonder why the notary’s bill blindsides them.
What the five-minute calc won’t tell you
This is where I get a little less cheerful. The 35% maths gives you a number, but the banker looking at your file cares about a few things the formula ignores.
The big one is your reste à vivre – what’s left to actually live on after the mortgage. A couple earning €8,000 and a couple earning €2,800 can both technically hit 35%, but the second one has almost nothing left once the loan is paid. Banks know that. They’ll be far stricter on lower incomes, formula or not.
Then there’s the apport, your down payment. You’ll usually want at least 10% to cover the notary fees and the loan guarantee, otherwise the bank is financing more than the property’s worth – and they hate that. There’s also job stability (a permanent contract, a CDI, opens doors a freelancer with the same income won’t get as easily), and the saut de charge, which is just the jump between your current rent and the future repayment. A small jump reassures them. A big one makes them nervous.
How to push your borrowing capacity up
So you ran the numbers and you’re a bit short. Don’t panic, there’s room to move. Clearing a consumer loan two or three months before you apply frees up that slice of the 35% instantly – honestly this is the most underrated lever there is. Bringing a bigger down payment helps too, obviously. And shopping the insurance matters more than people think : you’re not obliged to take the bank’s policy, and an external one can shave 0.15 to 0.30 points off your real rate, which quietly buys you a few thousand euros of extra capacity.
One more thing, and then I’ll let you go. A broker submits your file to several banks at once and pulls counter-offers you’d never get alone at the counter. With rates this differentiated between lenders – sometimes 0.30 points apart for the exact same profile – that’s not a luxury. That’s free money on the table.
Run the five-minute version today. Then, when you’re serious, get the real simulation done. The gap between “I think I can afford it” and “the bank confirmed I can” is exactly where good decisions live.