ANZ and NAB lift home loan rates

A new RateCity.com.au study shows 33 lenders – including two major banks, ANZ and NAB, – have lifted some of their popular home loan rates in recent weeks.

A total of 382 home loan rates, including 265 fixed and 117 variable products, have been hiked since January 1.

Peter Arnold, data insights director at RateCity.com.au, said lenders had lifted home loan rates by as much as 0.60 percentage points.

“After several years of record low rates, Australian home owners are facing unwelcome news to start the year as more banks quietly raise rates on their mortgages,” he said.

“The banks began lifting home loan rates late last year, with the biggest hikes being applied to their fixed deals at the time.

As a result, most of the impact last year was felt by new customers who were looking to fix their home loans and were prepared to cop the higher rates on the chin. But that's about to change.

The difference now is that more variable rates are under attack, with 117 hikes in the last five weeks largely hitting existing customers.

This is just the start for higher rates and we expect this trend to continue as banks face higher lending costs both from nervous international funding sources and increased pressure from our local regulator to hold more capital.

Variable borrowers should get set for higher expenses this year or be prepared to switch," he said.