It is widely expected that the Reserve Bank will start to increase the OCR from this month.
Some economists have suggested that the hiking cycle should already have started – and that by delaying it, the Reserve Bank could miss out on some of the impact as borrowers shield themselves by moving to fixed interest rates.
Just under 60% of lending is now on fixed rates, compared to 45.08% in 2012.
During January, there was growth of $2.7 billion in fixed-term mortgages and decline of $1.8 billion on floating rates.
But Reserve Bank data shows that almost 85% of total home loan lending is on terms of less than two years, or just under $96.5 billion.
Only $34 million in lending is on fixed terms of five years or more.
BNZ chief economist Tony Alexander said borrowers would not be tempted into the longest-term fixes at the moment because the jump between the floating and five-year rate was so high.
But he said if the banks were to offer a five-year rate of about 6.5%, rather than the roughly 7.2% on offer, he would recommend borrowers get in “boots and all”.
