ANZ New Zealand, the country's biggest bank, is cutting its shorter term fixed mortgage rates taking them below rates advertised by their major rivals.
ANZ is cutting its six month, one year and two year "specials" from Tuesday, October 15.
The six month special drops 64 basis points to 3.65%, the one year special is being trimmed 10 basis points to 3.55%, and ANZ's two year special is being reduced by four basis points to 3.45%.
The cuts take ANZ's carded, or advertised specials for six months, one and two years below those of their major rivals - ASB, BNZ and Westpac - for these terms. However other smaller banks have lower rates on offer.
In a statement Ben Kelleher, ANZ's acting managing director of retail and business banking, says there's still strong demand for housing in New Zealand and spring is a very popular time for Kiwis to start looking at buying new homes.
“We want to make sure we are supporting customers into their own homes so we’re cutting rates across a range of terms to suit different home buyers’ situations. The current extreme low interest rate environment not only represents an opportunity for new home buyers to enter the market, but for existing home loan customers to pay off as much of their debt as possible," says Kelleher.
ANZ's 'special' rates require a minimum 20% equity, and ANZ transaction account with salary direct credited, and are not available with package discounts. Without these conditions, their standard rate apply which are 50 basis points higher.
Until about a week ago, wholesale swap rates had fallen to record low levels. But in the past week they have started rising, with the benchmark two year swap rate up nine basis points in that time. However since the start of October, this same rate is still four basis points lower.
The lowest rates in New Zealand at present are offered by Chinese banks who have a retail presence here.
Our table below presents carded rates. If you have received real rate offers lower than these, please note them in the comment section below and what bank is involved. A note about related cash-backs or other incentives would be good too.
Here is the full snapshot of the advertised fixed-term rates on offer from the key retail banks.
| Fixed, below 80% LVR | 6 mths | 1 yr | 18 mth | 2 yrs | 3 yrs | 4 yrs | 5 yrs |
| as at October 15, 2019 | % | % | % | % | % | % | % |
| ANZ | 3.65 |
3.55 |
3.99 | 3.45 |
3.99 | 4.85 | 4.95 |
 |
4.29 | 3.65 | 3.75 | 3.49 | 3.89 | 4.19 | 4.29 |
 |
4.79 | 3.65 | 4.55 | 3.49 | 3.99 | 4.35 | 4.45 |
 |
4.79 | 3.55 | 3.49 | 3.99 | 3.99 | 3.99 | |
 |
4.99 | 3.65 | 4.79 | 3.49 | 3.99 | 4.35 | 4.45 |
| Bank of China | 3.99 | 3.15 | 3.70 | 3.15 | 3.79 | 4.35 | 4.45 |
| Co-operative Bank | 3.49 | 3.49 | 3.59 | 3.59 | 3.89 | 3.99 | 4.09 |
| China Construction Bank | 4.70 | 3.19 | 3.19 | 3.19 | 4.95 | 4.95 | |
| ICBC | 4.29 | 3.18 | 3.18 | 3.18 | 3.20 | 3.99 | 3.99 |
 |
4.65 | 3.35 | 3.35 | 3.35 | 3.35 | 3.35 | 3.35 |
 |
4.29 | 3.65 | 3.69 | 3.59 | 3.99 | 4.49 | 4.49 |
 |
4.35 | 3.69 | 3.69 | 3.59 | 4.05 | 4.45 | 4.55 |
In addition to the above table, BNZ has a unique fixed seven year rate of 5.70%.
All carded, or advertised, term deposit rates for all financial institutions for terms of less than one year are here, and for terms of one-to-five years are here. And term PIE rates are here.
Fixed mortgage rates
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29 Comments
Drop 2+ years salary as a down payment on a house, enjoy record low interest rates at record high Debt to Income levels. When Mortgage lending per capita peaks, watch what happens to interest rates when total mortgage lending starts falling. A new form of “table mortgage” where the interest portion in dollar terms remains fixed over the lifetime as interest rates are increased to fill the void in bank profits.
Lovely, but for some strange reason I care more about the NZ dollar’s value measured against a combination of food, alcoholic beverages and tobacco,clothing, footwear, housing and household utilities, household contents and services, health, transport, communication, recreation and culture, education, and miscellaneous goods and services. Or even the TWI.
How is the NZD doing against the value of seashells? How about Ethereum?
With transactions down, cant be much lending round. Otherwise ANZ would have sharpened their rates further.
One of the biggest challenge at present is vendors expectation on price, from the 2016/17 boom facilitated by Jonkey government attempts to get reelected. When you take the Asian margin traders out of the equation, the market finds a new level; and theirs still some way to go here.
The biggest challenge is the current environment is the new lending rules, with an emphasis on the requirement of a 20% deposit to enjoy the low rates. What that should tell people is the banks at not interested in a lesser deposit because they do not want to overly expose themselves to further falls in value.
Hopefully this Labour government arent stupid enough to provide the equity to first home buyers, which could evaporate with an expected market correction. Let the developers and land banksters take the hit, rather than the naive first home buyers. This government focus should be in deliverying better quality rental accommodation, and the best way to do this is providing 3 to 5 year rental guarantees for developers. This reduces their skin in the game, including exposure to potential downside in the market.
There's enough subsidies in the residential real estate market, without creating more.
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