A borrower with a $600,000 home loan will be paying $364 a month more than before the first of 2026's four cash rate hikes, once the latest rise is passed on in full, according to Canstar.
Lenders have already lifted 289 fixed rates since the Reserve Bank's (RBA) 29 September cash rate hike.
Seventeen lenders, including NAB, raised those fixed rates by an average of 0.24 percentage points in the week after the decision, Canstar's tracking shows. The latest increase alone will add about $91 a month to the same loan, according to Canstar group manager of research Josh Sale (pictured).
Over the same week, seven lenders lifted 49 owner-occupier and investor variable rates by an average of 26 basis points. Many of the announced variable rate increases are yet to take effect, with most due to kick in over the next week or so
"Variable borrowers should treat the next few weeks as a moving target," Sale said.
He noted that most lenders had yet to respond to the new 4.6% cash rate, the highest since late 2011.
The average variable rate for owner-occupiers paying principal and interest now sits at 6.63%. The lowest variable rate on Canstar's database is 5.69%, from Pacific Mortgage Group. Only two rates remain below 5.75%, and Sale expects neither to last once repricing runs its course.
According to Sale, fixed rates are the clearest signal of where lenders expect rates to go.
"The fixed moves are the ones to watch, because lenders are not just passing on September's hike," he said.
Banks are pricing in higher bond yields and the possibility of a further RBA increase, he said, with central banks in the US, Europe, and Japan also tightening through September.
"Whether a fifth hike follows is now a live question," Sale said.
Headline inflation reached 4% in August, a four-month high, while the RBA's preferred underlying measure held at 3.6%. Unemployment, meanwhile, rose to 4.6%, its highest level in almost five years.
The big four banks are divided as a result. Commonwealth Bank and NAB expect 4.6% to mark the peak, while Westpac and ANZ are forecasting one more increase in November. Sale said the September inflation figures, due on 28 October, would go a long way to settling the debate.
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