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With swap rates rising relentlessly and an expected OCR hike due on Wednesday, New Zealand's largest mortgage lender has hiked fixed home loan rates across the board

Personal Finance
With swap rates rising relentlessly and an expected OCR hike due on Wednesday, New Zealand's largest mortgage lender has hiked fixed home loan rates across the board

ANZ has front-run Wednesday's expected Official Cash Rate (OCR) hike with home loan mortgage rate increases, effective Tuesday.

It has raised its one-year fixed rate 'special' by +14 basis points to 2.69%, its eighteen month fixed rate by +15 bps to 2.89%, and its two and three year fixed rate 'specials' by +10 bps each to 3.05% and 3.25% respectively.

ANZ last tweaked rates generally higher just 13 days ago.

ANZ fixed rate mortgage 'specials' are available to customers with a minimum of 20% equity and an ANZ transaction account with salary direct credited. Otherwise standard interest rates apply which are +60 bps higher.

ANZ may be front-running the RBNZ (just as ASB did prior to the last OCR review), but in reality they are responding to wholesale rate rises. You can see the recent activity in the interactive chart below which shows relentless rises across the one, two and three year swap rates recently.

The RBNZ probably won't mind the hike by New Zealand's largest mortgage lender. It will see the market doing the work for it and if these rate hikes spread, it may be tempted to hold back some of its policy rate hiking. Not all of it obviously, but it may temper the impulse to go with a double rise.

Those wholesale swap rate rises have been strong. In the past 60 days the one year swap rate has risen +75 bps, up +50 bps in the past month.

The increases ANZ is pushing through do not absorb all these wholesale rises. So perhaps there is more to come.

ANZ also raised term deposit rates, with their six month rate rising +10 bps and the one year TD rate up +20 bps.

One useful way to make sense of these changed home loan rates is to use our full-function mortgage calculators. (Term deposit rates can be assessed using this calculator).

And if you already have a fixed term mortgage that is not up for renewal at this time, our break fee calculator may help you assess your options. Break fees should be minimal in a rising market.

Here is the updated snapshot of the lowest advertised fixed-term mortgage rates on offer from the key retail banks at the moment.

Fixed, below 80% LVR 6 mths   1 yr   18 mth  2 yrs   3 yrs  4 yrs  5 yrs 
as at August 17, 2021 % % % % % % %
               
ANZ 3.39 2.69
+0.14
2.89
+0.15
3.05
+0.10
3.25
+0.10
4.29
+0.30
4.59
+0.20
ASB 3.29 2.55 2.79 2.95 3.29 3.69 3.99
3.29 2.55 2.79 2.95 3.25 3.69 3.99
Kiwibank 3.55 2.49   2.79 3.29 3.59 3.89
Westpac 3.29 2.55 2.75 2.89 3.29 3.49 3.79
               
Bank of China  3.45 2.39 2.59 2.79 2.99 3.39 3.69
China Construction Bank 2.65 2.65 2.65 2.85 3.25 3.55 3.99
Co-operative Bank (*FHB only) 2.49 2.29* 2.69 2.89 3.19 3.49 3.79
Heartland Bank   2.15   2.45 2.65    
HSBC 2.89 2.40 2.65 2.79 3.05 3.39 3.69
ICBC  2.49 2.29 2.49 2.69 2.99 3.29 3.59
  (*FHB only)SBS Bank 2.79 1.99* 2.59 2.79 2.99 3.39 3.69
 [incl Price Match Promise]  2.89 2.55 2.74 2.89 3.15 3.49 3.79

Fixed mortgage rates

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Daily swap rates

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Opening daily rate
Source: NZFMA
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Source: NZFMA

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37 Comments

Still low compared to real inflation.

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A good start, but there is still way to go. The 1-year swap is looking better by the day.
By the way, the ANZ 4-year term is not 1% pa, but 1.9% (not that this is of any relevance anyway, as nobody would be so crazy as to invest on such long term, with steeply rising rates on the horizon).

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Watch banks play follow the leader...

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25 points rise will not make any difference as per many experts and if that is the case Orr will go for it only because it will potray him of acting and also suit his narative, so 50 points, which could have some impact can be 100% ruled out and he will go for 25 points hike -, Tomorrows headline today.

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yes 0.25 wont have any effect, the economy is too hot.
Can we have the ANZ and ASB take over Orrs job please...........
They are not ignoring 30% house price rises and inflation everywhere.

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They're not doing this as a piece of public policy, just in response to swaps.

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Yawn. One tenth of one percent. Nothing to froth over.

This amounts to a paltry $1000 per annum on a million dollar mortgage. Pocket change.

House prices increase by that amount in a day.

We need to see mortgage rates starting with a 4 or 5 before the true folly of the Great New Zealand Property Ponzi is revealed.

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I think we'd see the Great New Zealand Depression at those rates.

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It would only take 100 - 200 basis points of rises to get there.

This is forecast within the next year or two.

Paying one and a half million for a lousy Auckland house on the assumption that interest rates remain at zero for the next three decades is going to start looking very foolish.

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Ha. 1.5m. That was so 2019.

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National enslavement to debt servicing vs. a depression. At least one will have an end.

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I think the debt servicing is correlated with human depression - so not sure whether an actual economic depression would be any worse than status quo for many in terms of collective human suffering.

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Unless they change their floating rate, then this isn't really 'frontrunning' the OCR move.

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and savings rates.

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Saving rates start rising when their money outflows more than inflows.

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To where?- so called customer deposits are unsecured bank liabilities which must remain in inter-bank circulation until the offsetting assets (bank purchased mortgage securities - promissory notes) are extinguished by borrower repayment.

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Didn't they price it in last time when the OCR didn't move? Now the pricing in again?

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The banks will boil the frog slowly.

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Why would they not? There is literally nothing stopping them and international shareholders gonna gouge. In fact we are encouraging it (whip us harder!) with the FLP.

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Did you read the article? This is based on what SWAPS have ALREADY done. And, even then, nowhere near enough but imagine they are too scared to lift by 0.70% if they end up by themselves out there.

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No challenge to the New Zealand banks , whose profits were assured over the past year , and have made out like bandits for two decades, to actually raise mortgage rates irrespective of where the OCR may sit tomorrow. Although the Norges Bank have signaled a rise in their OCR the following day, no Norwegian banks have 'front run" their customers.

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They must actually have an effective regulatory body. In a comparison with like-sized countries, NZ banks second most profitable behind Canada (some work to do there I think :| I wonder what Canada and NZ have in common?) and are pillaging us. Masochism.
https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/-/media/ReserveBank/Files/OIAs/2019/Response-t…

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No mention of interest only loans.... who cares what interest rates are when you don’t have to repay the capital!

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IO loans are all the more sensitive to rate rises, in terms of % increase of required repayments.

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Any banking experts on this forum? Be interested on their take on how swaps rates will impact bank mortgage lending exposure. It appears that swaps 1-10years are all climbing steeply (although the 10 year appears to have settled about March). Can these swap rate rises be ignored and the FLP is used to keep rates down on shorter term lending?

Is it possible for swap rates to continue climbing, ignoring the OCR?

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It's a good question. I agree that advertised mortgage rates seem to track the 1-2 year swaps, in a curious way if you're expecting that they're FLP funded.

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A number of banks have said they are using FLP for more targeted lending, not general subsidisation.

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Obviously trying to add pressure. They could had done it tomorrow.

Banks having it tough? Least we forget stock buy backs, jobkeeper and special dividends.

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Swap rate bottom June 17th
Same week that Saturn made 90 degree angle to Uranus
Next instalment Dec 24th

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Same week my mother turned 74 too. Coincidence? I think not! I expect she'll be quite merry on December 24th. The Mas and Janets are in alignment!

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The picture used above should be more of a bunny hop than a high jump.

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Right on cue, we have a local covid case, which I predicted on another article last week. I wonder if that will change things.

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Well there you go, Mr Orr has an out thanks to a community case: https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/126097187/covid19-hea…

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How's ya hike now ANZ, I reckon you jumped the gun for a second time

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ANZ making record profits it anyone fixes on the new rates. It's actually pretty criminal and pillaging it's customers. They have been the most vocal about OCR going up. This is the same bank that said last year house prices will drop 30%.

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I feel this story has become dated in less than a few hours. I can't see any move now unfortunately.

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ANZ looking like fools once again hahaha what a joke

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