Westpac is making a comprehensive set of retail interest rate changes in response to fast moving rises in wholesale money costs.
Fixed home loan rates are going up, and some term deposit rates are going up too.
But not all.
The Red Bank has added +30 basis points (bps) to all its fixed rates for two years and longer terms, but cut its six month rate by -20 bps. Its one year and 18 month rates are unchanged.
On the term deposit front, rates for an 18 month deposit are up +10 bps, and for two to five years they are up +30 bps.
Westpac has made a big deal about how much wholesale swap rates have shifted since November 25, 2025, pre the last Official Cash Rate change (which was a -25 bps cut).
To compare mortgage rate offers in a way that includes the application and account fees costs (or break fee costs if you need to do that), and applying the impact of a cashback/legal fee reimbursement, or other incentive, you can now use our new home loan comparison calculator. You can find it here. Or, for convenience, we have added it to the bottom of this article.
We sense the ability to achieve meaningful discounts from carded rates is now much harder, so the impact of the incentives offered are currently playing an outsized role. Reader-reported mortgage rates are welcome. So please record them if you have them in the comment section below, which helps us stay on top of this aspect of the home loan rates market.
And still negotiate. How flexible banks may be will depend on the strength of your financials.
One useful way to make sense of the changed home loan rates is to use our full-function mortgage calculator which is here.
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 will be minimal in a rising market. But they become important in a falling market, like now.
Here is the 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 December 9, 2025 | % | % | % | % | % | % | % |
| ANZ | 4.79 | 4.49 | 4.49 | 4.49 | 4.79 | 5.39 | 5.39 |
 |
4.85 | 4.49 | 4.45 | 4.49 | 4.79 | 5.09 | 5.15 |
 |
4.79 | 4.49 | 4.45 | 4.49 | 4.79 | 4.99 | 4.99 |
 |
4.75 | 4.49 | 4.49 | 4.85 | 5.19 | 5.39 | |
 |
4.69 -0.20 |
4.49 | 4.45 | 4.75 +0.30 |
5.05 +0.30 |
5.29 +0.30 |
5.29 +0.30 |
| Bank of China | 4.68 | 4.28 | 4.38 | 4.58 | 4.78 | 4.95 | 4.95 |
| China Construction Bank | 4.79 | 4.49 | 4.49 | 4.49 | 4.79 | 4.99 | 4.99 |
| Co-operative Bank | 4.79 | 4.45 | 4.49 | 4.49 | 4.79 | 4.99 | 5.19 |
| ICBC | 4.69 | 4.25 | 4.29 | 4.59 | 4.79 | 4.99 | 4.99 |
 |
4.99 | 4.49 | 4.49 | 4.65 | 4.85 | 4.99 | 4.99 |
 |
4.99 | 4.39 | 4.75 | 4.49 | 4.89 | 5.19 | 5.39 |
Fixed mortgage rates
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Daily swap rates
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1 Comments
Yeah I was commenting last week that I didn't think it would be long before banks might start raising mortgage rates given swap activity (they don't have any option really to manage their interest rate risk of their balance sheets).
Don't think this was the intended outcome the RBNZ was looking for with their last OCR cut - in fact its the complete opposite. When the general public catch on that rates are on the rise again they won't be spending the extra dollar this year on xmas pressies and holiday activities - they'll be worrying themselves about refixing at a higher rate again in the future and getting ready for that (then the stats will come out that spending is down and GDP is extremely weak and there are no green shoots despite ASB on the news last night saying there are signs that green shoots are finally here....).
The RBNZ drop rates with the intention of increasing aggregate demand on the economy and creating stimulus - but by cutting when they should have remained steady the have, in my opinion, shot themselves in the foot. I don't think swaps would have gone up (to the extent they have post OCR review - as swaps were screaming 'don't cut' before the review) if the RBNZ held steady - and then mortgage rates wouldn't be on the rise gain. As the new Governor said they need to be solely fixated on inflation - and inflation in the CPI was showing a clear and steady trend right up to the upper mandated limit and yet they cut - I mean, WTF?? (do they not realise that economies can also shrink and aggregate demand for goods and services be completely squashed because of inflation and not just deflation?? - and yet they are always fixated on deflation and not inflation?)
It wouldn't surprise me if we're back into OCR rises at first review next year - and if the swaps keep going vertical it might be a 50bps rise. Over 2 months before the next policy review as well - so any chance of an emergency meeting and rate rise before Feb 18th? And they will continue to say that they are all about creating financial stability - while they manufacture the financial instability we experience on a daily basis. And banks will keep saying 'green shoots' are here as they try to sell mortgages to people while GDP stats keep coming out saying the economy is weak (actually no green shoots) because we keep messing up our OCR by either cutting when we should be raising (when inflation indicators are flashing red) or raising when we should be cutting (inflation already dropping and economy strangled by lack of aggregate demand).
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