Mortgage pain: Four major banks hike home loan rates

Four major banks have now moved to lift their home loan rates this week, heaping more pressure on mortgage holders.

Westpac and ANZ today announced changes to their standard and special fixed home loan rates, following moves by ASB and Kiwibank earlier this week.

Westpac’s two-year fixed standard and special rate will increase 20 basis points to 7.39 per cent and 6.79 per cent respectively, effective from tomorrow.

The bank’s standard three-year fixed rate will also rise 20bp to 7.09 per cent, while the four-year rate will be bumped 10bp to 6.89 per cent.

There were no changes to Westpac’s six-month, one-year or five-year standard or special rates. However, Westpac lifted its six- and one-year rates in May.

ANZ said its standard six-month and one-year fixed rates would increase 20bp to 7.79 per cent, effective from tomorrow.

ANZ’s standard two-year fixed home loan rate will rise 30bp to 7.39 per cent.

Its standard four- and five-year fixed rates will drop to 6.89 per cent respectively.

On Monday, ASB and Kiwibank also hiked their fixed mortgage rates.

ASB lifted its six-month and one-year rates to 7.25 per cent, its 18-month rate to 6.95 per cent and its two-year rate to 6.79 per cent for those with a minimum 20 per cent equity.

Kiwibank bumped up its six-month fixed special rate from 6.99 per cent to 7.15 per cent. Its special two-year rate went up 10bp to 6.59 per cent, and the five-year special rate rose from 5.99 per cent to 6.29 per cent.

In May, Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr surprised the market by saying the official cash rate – currently 5.5 per cent – had peaked.

That call will be put to the test when the next OCR decision is made next Wednesday.

Orr said at the time he didn’t expect to see any movement in fixed mortgage rates.

“We anticipate none, in the sense that what we are doing today is what we’re foreshadowing for some time,” Orr said in May.

Lenders charged Kiwis $3.8 billion in home loan interest during the first quarter of this year, according to figures from the Reserve Bank.

The interest charged is the highest recorded since the Reserve Bank began collecting the data in 2014.

Data from credit bureau Centrix this week showed the number of Kiwis missing mortgage repayments rose for the ninth month out of the last 10.

Mortgage arrears in May rose to 1.32 per cent of the active population, up from 1.27 per cent in April, to the highest level reported since March 2020. However, back then home loan arrears were at 1.49 per cent and reached as high as 1.55 per cent in March 2017.

Now, 19,500 mortgage accounts are reported as past due, up 34 per cent on a year-on-year basis, according to Centrix.

And with more households still to roll off fixed-rate mortgages, there’s likely more pain ahead for homeowners.

Figures from the Reserve Bank show the average rate (fixed) being paid on mortgage lending in April was just 4.63 per cent.