The concerned savers will have to think about new investment options because this booklet will soon be closed.
Some savers will soon receive bad news from their bank: one of their investments will be automatically closed! Banks should warn their customers well, but it will therefore be necessary to open their eye … and its mailbox to monitor this deadline and its consequences.
Many French people will be affected since this closure concerns one of their favorite savings products: housing savings plans, the famous PEL. You probably ignore it but the PELs have a kind of expiration date. Yes like your yogurts … The regulations have changed over the years and those open from March 2011 thus have a lifespan limited to 15 years. 2011 +15 = 2026, the first PELs concerned, subscribed in 2011, will therefore expire in a few months, by the end of 2026.
According to the latest observatory of the Banque de France, the period 2026-2030 will thus be marked by a large wave of automatic fences, due to the large number of PELs opened between 2011 and 2015. By 2030, 36% of PELs will be affected. At the end of 2024, these generations of plans represented 41% of the total outstanding, still the tidy sum of 93 billion euros in outstanding “potentially concerned” by these closures, notes the Banque de France. Recall that the PELs are concerned still open and on which no movement other than investments has been recorded, any withdrawal on a PEL, causing de facto its fence.
Faced with this deadline, several options are available to savers. First of all, it is possible to keep your PEL until its automatic fence. This allows you to continue to benefit from the advantageous historical rate. On the date indicated, 15 years after its opening, the PEL will be closed and transformed into a classic booklet. The remuneration will then be much less attractive.
The second option is to use his savings to finance a real estate project. Indeed, after a savings phase of at least 4 years, the PEL gives the right to a housing savings loan at a preferential rate. In the current context of the rise in real estate credits, the Banque de France hopes that this closure could therefore paradoxically restore the PEL its primary vocation: finance the purchase of accommodation.
Finally, for those who wish to continue to save after the end of their PEL, it will be necessary to study the available alternatives. Given the low current rates on new PELs, other savings products such as banking booklets or term accounts could offer better yields. It will obviously depend on the objective of savings and performance of each client. Load to banks to advise them best …
