The main banks are out with temporary mortgage relief packages in line with the 6 month “holiday” announced by the Government last week. This program is a JV between the RBNZ, retail Banks and the Government.
Options include taking interest only for 12 months ie: paying only the interest cost with no payments to reduce the amount of the loan.
Or a loan repayment deferral which involves no repayments at all for 6 months.
Make no mistake, this is no “Mortgage Holiday”.
Your loan amount will increase while your repayments are paused.
And the Lender will still charge interest on what you owe on your loan. This interest is added to your loan amount and they charge interest on that amount as normal.
This morning the Reserve Bank has slashed the Official Cash Rate by 0.75% to 0.25%. We have never been here before folks. Historic.
Floating interest rates and short term fixed interest rates should get a trim depending on how much of the margin main Banks don’t keep for themselves.
The Reserve Bank held the OCR at 1.50% today but cited “….weaker global economic outlook and the risk of ongoing subdued domestic growth, a lower OCR may be needed over time to continue to meet our objectives.”
