Interest Rate

22/03/2017

CommBank, ANZ expected to raise rates

COMMBANK and ANZ customers should brace for interest rate hikes of more than 20 basis points for investor loans and up to 10 basis points for owner-occupiers. NAB and Westpac began raising interest rates out-of-cycle with the Reserve Bank last week, and experts say the remaining two of the big four banks are likely to follow suit shortly. Despite the official cash rate remaining on hold at its historic low of 1.5 per cent, the banks have begun hiking rates […]
20/03/2017

Housing market is in an environment of ‘heightened risk’, but it’s not ‘the B-word’

Australia’s banking regulator says the country’s housing market is in an environment of “heightened risk”, but he won’t say there’s a housing bubble. Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority chairman Wayne Byres told a Sydney conference that he wouldn’t use “the B-word” to describe the housing market. “I don’t use the B-word. I refuse to use the B-word. It implies a binary, that’s too simplistic,” Mr Byres said speaking at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission annual forum. “We are in an […]
19/03/2017

Westpac joins NAB in raising interest rates

TWO down, two to go. Westpac has joined rival National Australia Bank in hiking mortgage interest rates for investors and owner-occupiers. Interest-only investor loans will be hardest hit, increasing by 28 basis points to 5.96 per cent per annum. Principal and interest investor loans will increase by 23 basis points to 5.79 per cent. The bank will also raise its owner-occupier rate by three basis points to 5.32 per cent, while interest-only owner-occupier loans will increase by eight basis points […]
17/03/2017

RBA ready to do more to cut economic risks off housing market

THE Reserve Bank is prepared to do more to slash rampant investor activity in the housing market, its assistant governor has confirmed. Michele Bullock, RBA assistant governor financial system said the “essence of macroprudential policy is that prudential supervisors recognise potential system-wide risks in their supervision of individual institutions and react accordingly”. She said regulators were continuing to monitor ongoing effects of housing risks “and are prepared to do more if needed”. Ms Bullock said three years ago Australian regulators […]
16/03/2017

National Australia Bank raises variable, investors’ home loan rates

National Australia Bank will tap the brakes on a resurgent investor market by hiking interest rates on variable home loans for property investors, while also increasing rates for owner occupiers. The bank will lift the variable interest rate on owner occupiers’ loans from 5.25 per cent to 5.32 per cent, and on residential investment home loans from 5.55 per cent to 5.80 per cent, from next Friday. “Clearly the investor market is seeing very strong levels of demand across Australia, […]