A 54 000 € income that is not the one declared

A couple with one child declares 54 000 € of reference taxable income and buys for 300 000 € in zone B1. The published ceiling there for a single person is 34 500 €. They are eligible all the same. Before you read on: what number turns 34 500 into 62 100?

First-time buyer: two years, no more

The zero-interest loan funds first-time ownership. Article L31-10-3 of the construction and housing code sets the central condition: not to have owned one's main home during the two years preceding the loan offer.

The condition covers the MAIN HOME only. Holding a rental property, a second home or shares in a property company therefore does not close off the scheme.

That narrowness is deliberate and worth stating plainly, because it is the point most often got wrong. Someone who has always rented their own home while owning a flat they let out remains a first-time buyer for this scheme.

The period is counted back from the issue of the offer, not from the signing of the deed. A seller who sold their main home twenty-two months ago will have to wait two more months.

That two-year rule has a calendar consequence people rarely anticipate. A household that sells and then rents for a few months before buying again must count the whole window: it is the one condition of the scheme that time alone can solve.

Three categories of people with a disability escape the condition: holders of the inclusive mobility card marked invalidity, recipients of a second or third category invalidity pension, and recipients of certain allowances.

The income used is not always the income declared

The resource test does not mechanically start from the tax return. The income taken into account is the HIGHER of two amounts, which defeats one obvious optimisation.

The first is the reference taxable income of year N-2 of the home's future occupants. The second is the total cost of the property transaction including all taxes, divided by nine.

That divisor of nine acts as a guard rail: a household with low declared income buying a very expensive property would see its deemed income climb back to the level such a purchase implies.

It is not an optional consistency check but a term of the formula. The deemed income prevails as soon as it exceeds the declared income, with nothing for the borrower to justify and nothing to contest.

The same household may therefore be eligible for a modest purchase and no longer eligible for a dearer one, at perfectly unchanged declared income, because the cost of the transaction pushed the income used back up.

For our couple, the 300 000 € cost gives 33 333 €, below the 54 000 € of reference taxable income. It is therefore the latter that is used.

The household coefficient does the rest

The four published ceilings apply to one person housed. They are multiplied by a household coefficient that depends on the number of people who will occupy the home.

That coefficient is 1 for one person, 1.5 for two, 1.8 for three, 2.1 for four and 2.4 from five, with an increase of 0.3 per further person up to eight.

A household of three in zone B1 therefore has a ceiling of 34 500 × 1.8 = 62 100 €. The 54 000 € of income used stays below it: the resource condition is met.

The coefficient is not a tax household quotient. It counts the people HOUSED, not the tax shares: two adults and a child give 1.8 where the tax quotient would give 2.5.