We review who offered the lowest fixed mortgage rates in 2014 and find there are two banks who consistently feature for 1 and 2 years

These are the banks with the lowest carded home loan rates in 2014 for two core terms.

Our review takes into account the availablility of 'specials', and these may come with conditions. (The most common condition is for at least 20% equity in your house.)

Use our handy mortgage calculator to work out your likely weekly, fornightly or monthly outgoings here.

The bank who consistently offered the lowest one year rate in 2014 was HSBC - they feature nine times in our 2014 table. Other banks jumped in and out of the table for the 'best' one year rate.

The bank who consistently offered the lowest two year rate in 2014 was SBS Bank achieving the 'best offer' position in five months. HSBC was listed four times in the two year set.

Even though the RBNZ hiked its OCR policy rate by a full 1% over the year, the market-leading one year rate only rose by +0.35% (although it was up by +0.75% at one point during the year).

The 'best' two year rate rose as well, but then gave up almost all those increases by December.

It is clear that the RBNZ's policy rate hikes had little long term impact on home loan rates.

This is probably why the regulator adopted a macro-prudential tool of limiting the ability of banks to offer high LVR loans. With the ineffectiveness of interest rate changes becoming more apparent, more non-rate macro-prudential actions are probably likely in 2015.

(The rates in parentheses in the table are the average of all bank offers.)

The HSBC Premier offer is for clients taking out large loans or clients who have a substantial banking relationship. It is clear that this allows HSBC to offer sharp rates especially for the one year term. But they are not as regularly competitive at the two year fixed term.

2014 also saw the introduction of significant and explicit non-rate incentives, usually cash. And that is something currently not offered by HSBC, nor did they offer that in 2014.

Of course, we can only track carded (advertised) rates. While these are important indicators, the fact remains that almost all banks will negotiate both the rate and the non-rate incentives. That means that banks not listed above as making the 'lowest' rate offer may in fact come to the party when you present them with your business and refer to the market alternatives.

It has been entirely feasible to achieve mortgage rates lower than those in the above table, and that remains the case.

As with anything, shopping around will most likely help you achieve a better outcome.