Hot on the heals of BNZ (who followed Westpac), the country's largest home loan lender, ANZ, has raised almost all its fixed mortgage rates.
A feature of their new rates is that it positions their rate card as the highest of all the main banks.
Perhaps oddly, it has left BNZ with lowish rates by comparison even after BNZ's move up earlier in the day. The differences aren't insignificant either.
ANZ's new rates are the highest of any bank for 1 year, 18 months, and three, four and five years.
There were swap rate falls today, but they were minor and don't undercut the rising cost aspect that motivated these recent rises.
Like Westpac, but unlike BNZ, ANZ has also raised term deposit rates, but only for terms one to five years. Longer term deposit rates are not popular with savers, so even though it might seem like offsetting rises, in fact it won't be (unless savers change their savings rollover habits - which is unlikely). So this is a clear net gain for the banks.
However savers might like to consider a change of attitude. ANZ's new two year TD rate is 4.10%, three years is 4.40%, four years is 4.60% and five years is 4.70%. Who knows, perhaps 5% TD rates might appear sometime soon, or if not 'soon', then sooner than savers might have expected.
We should note that 4%+ rates challenge residential housing investment net yields (and in many cases residential housing investment gross yields in many cases too).
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 use our home loan comparison calculator. You can find it here. Or, for convenience, we have added it to the bottom of this article.
Negotiate. How flexible banks may be will depend on the strength of your financials.
One other 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 March 19, 2026 | % | % | % | % | % | % | % |
| ANZ | 4.49 | 4.59 +0.10 |
4.89 +0.20 |
5.09 +0.20 |
5.39 +0.20 |
6.09 +0.20 |
6.19 +0.20 |
 |
4.59 | 4.59 | 4.75 | 4.95 | 5.19 | 5.55 | 5.69 |
 |
4.49 | 4.49 | 4.69 +0.05 |
4.89 +0.20 |
5.29 +0.30 |
5.49 +0.30 |
5.69 +0.40 |
 |
4.49 | 4.49 | 4.89 | 5.25 | 5.69 | 5.79 | |
 |
4.49 | 4.59 | 4.85 | 5.19 | 5.29 | 5.39 | 5.59 |
| Bank of China | 4.38 | 4.48 | 4.48 | 4.58 | 4.88 | 5.28 | 5.28 |
| China Construction Bank | 4.69 | 4.49 | 4.49 | 4.54 | 4.90 | 5.10 | 5.20 |
| Co-operative Bank | 4.49 | 4.49 | 4.69 | 4.89 | 5.19 | 5.55 | 5.69 |
| ICBC | 4.39 | 4.39 | 4.49 | 4.59 | 4.99 | 5.09 | 5.19 |
 |
4.69 | 4.49 | 4.69 | 4.89 | 5.15 | 5.55 | 5.69 |
 |
4.59 | 4.39 | 4.75 | 4.69 | 4.99 | 5.19 | 5.29 |
Fixed mortgage rates
Select chart tabs
Daily swap rates
Select chart tabs
6 Comments
Swap rates barely move and mortgage rates go up anyway...tidy little margin expansion there
From late Feb - mid Mar swaps up 20bps and mortgage rates go up 20bps.
Probably no margin expansion at all - just covering their interest rate risk.
(and I'm the last person who usually supports banks and their profit making....but this is just them covering interest rate risk of their assets and liabilities (deposits and mortgages))
Yeh fair point short term, but zoom out over the full move and it aint really been even tho
Many would say a strong banking system is a good thing.
I think banks are making easy money in NZ.
https://www.afr.com/markets/equity-markets/shares-of-big-four-banks-at-…
Shares of Australia’s big four banks could come under pressure after the Reserve Bank raised interest rates on Tuesday, with Morgan Stanley warning that earnings could be hit by as much as 11 per cent.
Bank analyst Richard Wiles told a webinar on Wednesday that the RBA’s 25-basis-point increase to 4.1 per cent – the second move higher in as many months – could “fundamentally shift operating conditions” for the lenders.
Worst-case scenario
In that scenario, Wiles warned that CBA shares could tumble more than 40 per cent to $101.5, Westpac could drop 36 per cent to $26.5, NAB 31 per cent to $32.9, and ANZ 21 per cent to $29.8.
A large part of the risk, he said, was because the shares were already trading at a lofty price-to-earnings multiple of 20 on average.
“History tells you that when the RBA hikes, bank price-to-earnings multiples go down. It hasn’t happened yet, but that’s what’s happened historically,” Wiles said.
Place your bets, BANZAI!!!!
Yup strong banks are good, which sorta supports the margin point too. Like theyre not exactly under pressure here.
They enjoy some of the greatest profit margins in the western world operating in NZ, and can siphon off profits offshore to AUS to buffer their business there as needed.
We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment
Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.