Westpac is lowering its fixed term mortgage rates further to the Reserve Bank cutting the Official Cash Rate on March 10, while the Co-operative Bank is undergoing a second round of reductions.
Co-op's 5-year rate is now leading the market with Kiwibank, HSBC and SBS Bank at 4.99%. However, HSBC's 4.99% rate is only available to its "premier" customers, and SBS' requires borrowers to have 20% equity.
The changes are as follows:
| Westpac | ||
| Fixed term | New rate | Change (bps) |
| 1 year | 4.79% | -6 |
| 1 year Special <80% LVR | 4.25% | -14 |
| 2 years | 4.89% | -10 |
| 2 year Special <80% LVR | 4.39% | -10 |
| 3 years | 4.99% | -11 |
| 4 years | 5.09% | -16 |
| 5 years | 5.19% | -16 |
| Co-op Bank | ||
| Fixed term | New rate | Change (bps) |
| 1 year | 4.25% | -14 |
| 18 months | 4.35% | -4 |
| 2 years | 4.35% | -4 |
| 3 years | no change | no change |
| 4 years | 4.89% | -10 |
| 5 years | 4.99% | -16 |
Co-op cut its floating rate by 25 basis points to 5.45% straight after the OCR move. Westpac soon followed, but dropped its floating rate by only 10 basis points to 5.75%.
ANZ, ASB, BNZ and Kiwibank have already dropped their fixed mortgage rates since the latest OCR cut. And the Co-operative Bank cut its two and three year rates as recently as March 15 by 10 basis points each to 4.39% and 4.65%, respectively.
See this page for all banks' carded, or advertised, mortgage rates.
8 Comments
I was thinking about this today Boatman. About how every single dollar in our pockets no matter where you spend it, put it, draw it, send it....ends up back at the greedy banks, and it makes no difference which bank as they all feed off each others balance sheets.
Banks are quite simply the most prolific parasitic organism at the very heart of our monetary and financial systems and they are holding back human progress. There must be a better way.
Long term investing today is different than ever before. Hoard cash is the trick, as that sits as a liability on the banks balance sheets. Spend less, which contracts the money supply via lowering velocity. All these thing reinforce the downward spiral of deflation, which increases the value of your cash.
The very high so called 'floating rate' is intended to be at very high levels to shift borrowers onto fixed rates.
Once borrowers are on fixed, then banks achieve lock-in, and benefit from having borrowers locked on relatively higher rates as generally rates and the OCR decrease. E.g. Those who fixed at 5.5% 2 years ago....
Of courser they are lowering the rates, the banks wouldn't want us to get wise about Asia Overseas Investors having left a bit gap in the market place, so that NZ buyers will need to borrow more to maintain the current exceedingly hugley over inflated house prices in Auckland and Queenstown.
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