Two more banks have lowered home loan rates.
First, the Co-operative Bank dropped its four and five year rates by -16 bps to 5.39% and 5.59% respectively.
That put the four year rate as the lowest in the market apart from the HSBC Premier offer. And the five year rate matches Westpac and HSBC Premier.
Then ASB announced rate changes to six fixed terms.
They raised their one year rate from 4.39% to 4.49%. That matches the one year offer from the Co-operative Bank, but is now above the 4.45% offers at ANZ and Kiwibank.
But they lowered all other rates.
ASB's eighteen month fixed rate offer is now the lowest of any bank other than HSBC Premier at 4.55%.
Their two year rate is down by -10 bps to 4.59% and also the lowest other than from HSBC Premier.
Their three year rate is down by -10 bps to 4.89%, but TSB has a lower rate yet: 4.79%.
For four years fixed, ASB's new rate is 5.39%, also a -10 bps drop, to a rate matching the Co-operative Bank but still above the HSBC Premier offer.
And their new 5.59% rate now matches a number of rivals, Westpac, The Co-operative Bak, and HSBC Premier.
But even if new real estate transactions are coming in lower, the rollover market is still healthy. 60.8% of all housing lending to owner-occupiers will fall due for an interest rate review within the next year. That is $2.5 bln more at $101.1 bln than was due at the start of the year. For investors, it is 62.2% of their lending that is due for an interest rate review within the year.
In wholesale markets, swap rates are basically unchanged from the low levels they have been in the past three months.
See all banks' carded, or advertised, home loan interest rates here.
Here is the full snapshot of the fixed-term rates on offer from the key retail banks.
| below 80% LVR | 6 mths | 1 yr | 18 mth | 2 yrs | 3 yrs | 4 yrs | 5 yrs |
| as at December 8, 2017 | % | % | % | % | % | % | % |
 |
4.99 | 4.45 | 5.15 | 4.65 | 4.99 | 5.89 | 6.09 |
 |
4.95 | 4.49 |
4.55 |
4.59 |
4.89 |
5.39 |
5.59 |
 |
5.35 | 4.59 | 5.05 | 4.65 | 4.99 | 5.89 | 6.09 |
 |
4.99 | 4.45 | 4.65 | 4.99 | 5.65 | 5.69 | |
 |
5.25 | 4.59 | 5.15 | 4.65 | 4.94 | 5.89 | 5.59 |
 |
4.80 | 4.49 | 4.69 | 4.69 | 4.99 | 5.39 |
5.59 |
 |
4.85 | 4.19 | 4.19 | 4.29 | 4.89 | 5.29 | 5.59 |
 |
4.99 | 4.59 | 4.69 | 4.69 | 4.99 | 5.49 | 5.69 |
 |
4.85 | 4.55 | 4.65 | 4.69 | 4.79 | 5.55 | 5.69 |
In addition to the above table, BNZ has a fixed seven year rate which is 6.15%.
And TSB still has a ten year fixed rate of 6.20%.
45 Comments
I bank with HSBC in the UK and they are definitely not the best bank for customer services, when I spoke with them earlier this week, they said that it might take 2-3 days to get a "personal wealth manager" assigned to us because they are short staffed, which again, doesn't bode well but I maintain that they might be safer in a banking crisis. And, they offer expat mortgage and foreign currency accounts so might work for us on a few levels. We'll see! They have certainly been leaders in the mortgage market.
Like all Government Departments Kiwibank is lazy and incompetent. When looking for offers when my loans floated they were the worst bank to deal with by not responding to calls or emails and then having two mortgage managers contact me at the same time with different offers.
A Mickey Mouse outfit that will never be a threat to the Aussies.
IMHO kiwibank is leagues ahead of the competition in every respect. Lower fees for a start. Lower rates, when I went to borrow some money they bested the rates offered by the others. Their internet bank and android app is way better than whats on offer from ASB or BNZ. Little things like being able to download resident withholding tax certificates is super easy with kiwibank.
Certainty. I reckon mortgage rates will go to zero as well. But I have been known to be wrong before! 30 years ago mortgage rates unexpectedly went to 22%, and 6% would have looked like a bargain in the rearview mirror. When BIG moves happen, it's because no one saw it coming, and by the time ' couple of months' has gone by...it's too late.
Nice to see them coming back down. We were offered 4.49% for 2 yrs from ANZ last week but cash incentives seems to have gone missing. That's around 2.35% over swap too which is quite high, but deposit rates haven't really come down. Any experiences with banks being competitive? We're going to settle on our new build in about 6 weeks so it's time to up the ante.
On a refix last week with ANZ I was offered 4.45% for 2 years, I settled for 4.19% over 1 yr with same bank. A month ago Westpac offered 4.8% for 2 years and 4.69% for 1 year. I have been told by my broker that Westpac are charging a premium on property investors at the moment.
That's assuming the borrower has no other source of income. Most investors have other income sources and therefore the yield should not matter THAT MUCH to justify a premium.
I doubt there is a premium on owner occupied mortgages if the estimated rental yield of the house is below 6%.
Costs a lot less than $6k to move a mortgage but be very careful accepting cash to refinance because it usually ties you to the bank for 3 or 4 years. If you fix your rate on a shorter term my guess would be they'd not offer any rate shave when you refixed as you'd be tied in. Tricky little buggers there banks, have to know exactly who you are getting into bed with.
It looks like you are re-fixing so your current bank is unlikely to offer you anything or if they do it will be well under what a bank trying to lure you away would offer. Your current bank is relying on the cost and hassle of moving been equal to a cash back offered by another bank of around $5k to $6k.
At least that is my experience when haggling e.g. New bank has offered me 4.3% rate and $8k, present to current bank who says we will match rate and give cash back of $2k (= we don't think you will up sticks and move all your business, accounts, APs and pay your lawyers for a measly $6k...).
It's a new build, new mortgage for first home buyers, we settle on the land in six weeks, and then have ~9 months of drawing down building payments but can fix the land portion straight away. I think they are relying on the fact that we have pre-approval and therefore will be sticky but i don't want to be shafted either.
Once you've got the cash ( the mortgage) then you can think about your options. I'd urge you not to end up without a lender at this stage (ie: annoy the current bank who says to you "Good luck with X Bank, 'cause our offer is off'). You know you need their money ....and so do they.
That's what we're doing atm but by accident rather than design (as in we decided not to sell a UK house because GBP tanked after Brexit). The property in the UK is giving us a very nice 7.8% yield and that is going to improve when we fix at an even lower rate soon (we had a 3.04% 5 year fix and soon that will be 1.66%) GBP has also 80% recovered. We're probably mad, but we still don't want to hold it long term. Property "investments" are not for us I don't think.
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.