Westpac cuts fixed mortgage rates

Westpac cuts 6 mth mortgage rate 10 bps to 5.75%, 2 year cut 10 bps to 6.30% and 3 year cut 20 bps to 6.70%; floating rate still 5.60%

19th Sep 11, 6:16pm by Bernard Hickey

Westpac has cut its six month, 2 year and 3 year mortgage rates by 10-20 basis points, but has left its floating mortgage rate unchanged.

Westpac cut its six month rate to 5.75% from 5.85%, which brings it into line with the previous lowest bank rate of 5.75% from Kiwibank.

Westpac cut its 2 year rate to 6.30% from 6.40%, which brings it into line with the 6.30% lowest bank rate offered by ASB.

Westpac cut its 3 year rate to 6.70% from 6.90%, which brings it into line with the 6.70% lowest bank rate offered by ASB.

Westpac left its lowest 'Choices Everyday' floating mortgage rate of 5.60% unchanged.

Earlier on Monday, Kiwibank announced a special 'book-a-rate' 5 year mortgage offer of 6.95%, which was 65 basis points below its regular rate.

Westpac's 5 year rate is currently 7.6% and is unchanged.

See Gareth Vaughan's article here on Kiwibank's 5 year offer.

See all bank and non-bank mortgage rates here.

See our interactive chart showing average bank mortgage rates back to 2002.

Mortgage rates

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Source: interest.co.nz

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9 Comments

by MortgageBelt | 19th Sep 11, 7:40pm 1316418057

Cuts, cuts cuts....

Keep those cuts rolling out. Might be nearly time to fix for 2 years - mainly to silence those repetitive annoying economists with their claims of sky-rocketing interest rates 'just around the corner'.

Then again, why fix when the OCR might be 1.5 soon?

Then again BH might scare the RB with stories of booming house rices and 'outrageous' lending. Lending! Lending! - we should never borrow but rather save 400,000 and buy our houses with Cash....

by Bernard Hickey | 20th Sep 11, 9:10am 1316466659

That's what the Chinese do. China has a 40% savings rate... and we wonder why China is winning...

cheers

Bernard

by MortgageBelt | 20th Sep 11, 12:05pm 1316477146

Yes, well maybe our mindset is to now borrow too readily. The Kiwisaver home ownership option is probably helping younger people with saving deposits now. I remember Muldoon setup a Home Ownership designated account at banks back in the 80s - which helped saving for a deposit - and you got your tax back up to 1500 or 33% of your annual savings. This was how we bought a section & built a shell - through savings that could not be touched for any other purpose. The other mindset that has changed is to keep drawing down equity - in a previous generation once your house was paid off, you left it alone debt-free.

by Ralph | 20th Sep 11, 5:03pm 1316495032

Whilst the Chinese government might be "winning" (not sure exactly what their prize is) I am not so sure the chinese people are.

by MortgageBelt | 20th Sep 11, 7:43am 1316461411

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/money/5637242/Mortgages-to-fix-or-float

I guess we're getting sick of this so-called 'dilemma' question. Is Westpac trying to tempt us back into a fixed rate? What was their motive? Thought offshore funding was getting more expensive due to global markets/banking issues not cheaper?

If you fixed 6 weeks ago - are you regretting it now?

by President of P… | 20th Sep 11, 2:56pm 1316487375

point of the matter is do not ask for the published rates and always save more - and float too if you can for the next three quarters at least....

I know at least one other of the big four than this one that has lower rates on request too...

President of Property

by A Banker | 20th Sep 11, 4:49pm 1316494173

"Westpac cut its 2 year rate to 6.30% from 6.40%, which brings it into line with the 6.30% lowest bank rate offered by ASB"

Is TSB no longer a Bank? According to your rates page they are offering 6.28% for two years...

by MortgageBelt | 20th Sep 11, 8:19pm 1316506749

Good discussion on bank margins on mortgages here:

http://www.squirrel.co.nz/fix-float-dissecting-mortgage-rates/

by Your Landlord | 20th Sep 11, 10:54pm 1316516063

China is "winning" Bernard?

Goodness me. All those people migrating to the United States...Aussie...NZ'ed et al, have got it wrong then. They should be moving to China.