Economist says fixing for short terms would give borrowers flexibility
ANZ has announced cuts to its mortgage rates, as economists anticipate a drop in the official cash rate (OCR) next month.
The bank’s six-month fixed special home loan rate has dropped to 3.65%, while its one-year fixed special rate has dropped to 3.55% and its two-year fixed special rate has dropped to 3.45%. With around 80% of customers having fixed-rate home loans, ANZ said that it expects the move will benefit a large number of its customers.
Read more: Don't believe what banks say about capital – Reserve Bank
“As New Zealand's largest home lender, we're committed to helping Kiwis into their own homes,” said Ben Kelleher, acting managing director retail and business banking at ANZ. “We want to make sure we are supporting customers into their own homes so we're cutting rates across a range of terms to suit different home buyers' situations. The current extreme low interest rate environment not only represents an opportunity for new home buyers to enter the market, but for existing home loan customers to pay off as much of their debt as possible.”
Nick Tuffley, chief economist at ASB Bank, told Stuff.co.nz that fixing for short terms would give borrowers flexibility.
“It depends on what special offers are around at the time,” he said. “The two-year rate is lower than the one year, and implicitly already factoring in a 0.5% OCR given where market pricing has got. So that rate already provides a lot of the benefit of the anticipated OCR cuts, though at the trade-off of missing out if the Reserve Bank cuts even more aggressively.”
