ANZ is the next major bank to follow through with its OCR-induced interest rate increases.
While it hasn't announced any changes to fixed home loan rates, ANZ is passing on the full 25 basis points to floating rates. The Reserve Bank last week raised the Official Cash Rate (OCR) by 25 basis points (bps) to 5.50%.
That means ANZ’s floating rate will rise to 8.64%, matching both ASB and Westpac who have already moved up. ANZ's flexible revolving credit rate will also rise 25 bps but to 8.75%*. This product is one of those rare ones that also comes with a monthly fee (unchanged).
ANZ's Blueprint to Build (the discounted floating rate for people building their own home) home loan rate will also increase by 0.25% to 5.88%.
These increases are all effective now for new clients, but not until June 13 for existing clients.
At the same time, ANZ - like ASB and Westpac also did - is raising its key savings rates too with its Serious Saver rate going up 25 bps to 4.50% for the maximum potential rate. For comparison, ASB's Savings Plus maximum potential rate rose to 5.00% and Westpac's Bonus Saver rate rose to 4.50% on the same basis (ASB's account is slightly more restrictive than others).
The Serious Saver rate will change on Thursday, June 1.
As is usual in these cases, an ANZ spokesperson has the standard boilerplate advice: “In coming months more people will be feeling financial pressure as their fixed home loans roll off. There are a range of options available, and we encourage anyone facing any difficulty or needing support to get in touch with their bank sooner rather than later.”
ANZ's changes are very little different from its main competitors, so this change is holding the competitive landscape unchanged. No-one is rocking the boat on rates and no main bank seems to want to compete on rates.
* This rate isn't effective for new clients until June 13, 2023.
22 Comments
TA and AC are the serial spruikers - who have been wrong and wrong on every call over the last 2 years.
Listen to everything they say....... then expect and plan on the opposite.
How Tony A expects house prices can defy the strong gravity of more expensive debt Beggers belief........ as we know he is bought and paid for by the RE industry's vested interests - so he must tow the old trodden line of you "just cannot lose on property"......
Some "good news" on the inflation front in the next six month and they'll all be cutting.
Good news means ...
- rising unemployment
- more mortgagee sales
- more builders going bust
- more retailers going bust
- more hospitality going bust
- higher levels of poverty
- lost more high value tourists due to a low NZD
The RBNZ has a strange idea of what is good, ay?
Which is what I have never understood post GFC. Asset prices were rising, not because the economy was strong, but because central banks were cutting rates in response to an economy that was becoming weaker and needed more and more stimulus just to stay afloat.
All arse about face. Asset prices shouldn't have been rising because the economy was weak. And now that the economy is 'booming' with record low unemployment and high wage growth, asset prices are falling. Strange world we live in.
When will it return to normality? Whereby asset prices rise on a strong economy, and fall on a weak economy? That will require central banks to stop playing the fools game of trying to trick the markets with dodgy discount rates that don't reflect the real risk that is present in the system. Risk has been rising the last 10 years, so should then have the required rate of return for which debt was funding those assets (for the theory of risk vs return to remain constant/true). But instead as risk was rising, we were dropping the required rate of return, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Well, well. Seems people are running their own auctions via the RE web sites.
i.e. start with $1m, then updated to $1.005m, then updated to $1.015m, rinse and repeat.
I've seen this done a few times before but it seems to be much more common now. (Psychologically, it must be much better than the more typical Dutch auction format which reeks of desperation.)
Adjusting for "feedback". If you really wanted to cause chaos in the real estate market just go attend some open homes and then breathlessly tell the real estate agent that you would totally be prepared to pay X amount of dollars for the place (that is at least 20% above what the place is worth) and that you will be attending the auction/submitting a bid - then disappear.
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