One and two year rates up this week

A lot of mortgage rate changes surfaced midway through this week with five lenders making adjustments to mainly one and two-year fixed rates.

Friday, December 18th 2009, 1:12PM

Westpac made the first movements, increasing its six-month fixed interest rate by 10 basis points to 5.59% and its two-year rate by 21 basis points to 7.20%, these new rates are still the lowest offered by the major banks. It then made a further change later in the week increasing its one-year rate by 21 basis points to 6.20%.

Kiwibank also made significant changes, raising its one-year, 18-month and two-year fixed rates by between 10 and 30 points. 

Its 18-month rate increased by 10 points to 6.39%, its two-year rate leaped up 25 points to 7.20% and its one-year rate jumped 30 points to 6.25%, which is now higher than most of the rates from the major banks for the same term.

AMP Home Loans increased its one-year fixed rate by 30 basis points for both its standard and priority products and the new rates are now 6.25% and 6.15% respectively. This is the first rate change for AMP since October this year.

Public Trust raised its two-year rate by 24 basis points to 6.99% which is still below the median rate for non-bank lenders.

TSB made the latest mortgage rate moves today hiking up its one-year rate by 30 basis points to 6.20% which is the median for all banks. It also increased its two-year rate by 25 basis points to 7.15%.

In MortgageRates news, Westpac predicts that proposed tax changes could lower house prices by as much as 34%, raise rents and increase the rate of home ownership.

We also look at signs which show the residential property market looks like plateauing, following the momentum seen over the past two months, according to the latest Mike Pero Mortgages/Infometrics Property Cycle Indicator.

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