Movements in Home Loan Fixed Interest Rates
Westpac has trimmed their advertised 5 Year fixed interest rate to 5.99% today.
The spread across their range of fixed interest rates, from the 1 year fixed interest rate of 5.45% to the 5 year fixed interest rate of 5.99%, would be one of the narrowest seen in recent times.
Barfoot & Thompson, Aucklands largest Real Estate firm has announced “In July we sold 998 homes for an average sales price of $591,444,” and that “This number of sales was at the very top end of the scale for recent years.” This compared with 778 properties in July 2011.
The firm’s total sales equated to $590M for July 2012 well up on the $412M of July 2011.
The 4 year fixed interest rate special of 5.79% with ASB has now expired. The Bank also released its year to June 30 numbers with headline profit up a stellar 21% to $685M. Total lending stood at $53B and total deposits a shade under $39B. Impairment losses on loans fell to a paltry $47M.
Westpac is running a 1 year fixed interest rate special of 4.99% provided your loan is less than 80% of the value of the home.
Another “Special” thru tonight from ASB and Sovereign of a 4 year fixed interest rate @ 5.79%. Available for new and existing customers provided the loan to value ratio is under 80% the announcement notes it “is for a limited time only”.
Enjoy your weekend.
Notification thru today from ASB of a special, 5 year fixed interest rate of 5.99%. Available for new and existing customers provided the loan to value ratio is under 80% the announcement notes it “is for a limited time”. This sort of rate was last seen in the wild back in February 2009, when for a 6 week period, 5 years fixed at 5.95% was available.
Home loan fixed interest rates continued to fall throughout May. 2 year fixed interest rates now sit around the 5.50% mark and 3 years fixed, around 5.75%.
However with a bit of negotiation customers who meet the Banks preferences are still able to get substantial discounts off those rates. It is not uncommon to see 2 years fixed at 5.10% and 3 years fixed at 5.35% as the major banks are still prepared to heavily discount in order to get new business on board and some hefty fixed interest rate penalty break fees are being paid to help get a new customer across.
A fair chunk of mortgage applications over the past 6 months have been First Home buyers, although many have been missing out at Auctions as prices are firmer than their expectations, but we hear now of a refinancing element that is more active in the finance market. These are those who are willing, and able, to move their business to a new bank in the chase for a better interest rate.
The Official Cash Rate gets reviewed on Thursday this week, the market had been pricing in a cut but Barfoots, the largest Real Estate Agency in Auckland, trumpeted a 31% increase in house sales in May and Spain has trumpeted a bank bailout of sorts over the weekend so i suspect another hold at the 2.50% level is on the cards.
ANZ led off in the middle of last week by trimming its home loan 1 year fixed interest rate to 5.25% from 5.65% as a response to Kiwibanks offer of 4.99% 1 year fixed for those with a minimum of 30% equity in their property.
Sovereign has late this afternoon reduced 1,2 and 3 year fixed interest rates. Their 3 year fixed interest rate falls from 6.10% to 5.75%.
The Bank finance market has been very very competitive in recent times with heavy discounting off the advertised interest rates regularly being offered. These fixed interest rate cuts look more like a “promotional” activity and effectively just get closer into line with what lenders have been offering of late anyway. Even with todays fixed interest rate cuts one is quite likely to get better than the above rates if prepared to ask the question. A word then to those considering interest rate options…Ask for a better rate!!.
I would expect the other lenders to follow Sovereign in the very near future. Swap rates have been declining on the back of an uptick in European jitters and the recent poor employment number here has assisted the declines.
Sayonara 🙂
Figures out from the Reserve Bank highlight that 60% of mortgage debt is now on Floating Interest Rates at an average interest rate of 5.74%.
One year ago the figure was 46% at an average interest rate of 6.26%.
Turnover in the housing market in December 2011 was 21% higher than the year earlier although this improvement is still down 30% on the average December turnover between 2003 and 2007.
Welcome back folks. Hope you all had an enjoyable New Years and managed to get some relaxation time.
ANZ and National Bank have today trimmed some of their short term home loan fixed interest rates.
Their 2 year Fixed Interest Rate has decreased from 6.09% to 5.79% drawing them a little closer to the rest of the market which in the main sits around 5.89%.
Kiwibank late last week gave the home loan interest rate market a shakeup, trimming home loan fixed interest rates across the board.
Spring, in the home loans market, has often been marked by one off promotional interest rate deductions, and “special offers” over the years. This year was shaping up to be pretty tame with the major lenders preferring to offer extensions to pre approvals and some help with one’s professional fee’s, rather than heavily promote a discounted interest rate.
Kiwibanks home loan fixed interest rate cuts have given the market a shake up though and today Westpac Bank has responded. They have cut their fixed interest rates also.
0.41% comes off the 2 year fixed interest rate which now sits at 5.89%.
The 4 year fixed interest rate gets the most lopped off, down by 0.45% to 6.85%.
Fixed versus Floating…aaahh that is the question. 🙂
Fixing won’t suit everyone due to differing circumstances, so please ensure you sit down with someone knowledgeable and discuss the pro’s and con’s of doing so before leaping at these shiny new, and sparkling, interest rates.
Enjoy your week. (And to the All Blacks, their Management and Crew…You were Awesome!!)
In somewhat of a surprise move ASB Bank has today tested the home loan fixed interest rate market through its subsidiary Sovereign by raising home loan fixed interest rates across the board.
1 year fixed goes from 5.95% to 6.15%. 18 months fixed goes up a whopping 40 basis points from 6% to 6.40%. And even the 5 year rate gets a tune up from 7.60% to 7.75%
Given last weeks OCR announcement, rises in short term home loan interest rates would not have been particularly surprising. Rises in them all, from 6 months through to 5 years fixed, is however and It shall be interesting to see if the major lenders follow.
UPDATE: 09/08/2011
Having been left out in the breeze by the rest of the market, which did not follow ASB and Sovereign in raising home loan fixed interest rates, a u-turn has occurred and notification of home loan fixed interest rate decreases is just through. 18 months fixed is cut from 6.40% down to 6.10% and the very surprising rise in the 5 year rate from last week to 7.75% is now trimmed down to 7.40%, below where it was before last weeks rise.
With global financial markets getting spanked the past few days on growth concerns we hold no inspiration to move from a floating interest rate.