Kiwibank makes everyone take notice

Kiwibank made heads whip around in interest this week as it became the first bank to change its floating mortgage rate this year, cutting it by 14 basis points to 5.65%. This makes it the second lowest rate behind BNZ's TotalMoney product offered at 5.59%.

Friday, February 12th 2010, 2:43PM

by Jenha White

We talked to Kiwibank about why it made the change in this story.

It also increased its 18-month fixed rate by 10 basis points to 6.49%.

TSB followed in Kiwibank's footsteps later in the week, reducing both its variable and revolving credit mortgage rates by 40 basis points from 6.39% to 5.99%.

HSBC also made a big change this week, dropping its five-year mortgage rate of 8.55% by 56 basis points to 7.99% which is a lot lower than the median for minor bank lenders of 8.69%.

HSBC already had the lowest five-year rate at 8.55% before the change and the lenders with the lowest five-year rates next to HSBC are the National Bank and Public Trust on 8.60% so it is rolling in the 7% range on its own.

Nelson Building Society increased its one-year fixed rate by 25 basis points to 6.55% and its two-year rate by 15 basis points to 7.55%. Both of these rates are now 15 basis points higher than the respective medians for non-bank lenders.

AMP also introduced new 18-month rates with the Standard rate being 6.69%, AMP Priority 6.59% and AMP Low Doc 6.89%.

In Expert Views we find that most economists are now pricing an Official Cash Rate hike in June after last week's unemployment figures which were unexpectedly high and in BNZ's Weekly Overview Tony Alexander asks the big question around a possible GST rise to 15%.

We also have a new graph up showing the past 18-months of home loan approvals in New Zealand with a marked trend of inactive in the summer months.

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