Australian mortgage brokers are facing a rapidly tightening market as lenders rush to reprice in the wake of the latest cash rate rise, while the big four delay their official move. Over the past week, lenders have rolled out widespread increases across both variable and fixed home loans, shrinking the pool of genuinely low‑rate options for clients.
Ten lenders have repriced 79 owner‑occupier and investor variable loans, lifting them by an average of 0.22 percentage points. In contrast, Aussie has shaved just 0.01% from two variable products. On the fixed side, 26 lenders have pushed up 508 owner‑occupier and investor fixed rates, with average increases of 0.36 percentage points, Canstar reported.
The average variable rate for owner‑occupiers paying principal and interest now sits at 5.95%, while the sharpest headline price remains 4.99% from Pacific Mortgage Group. Yet these sharp offers are becoming harder to find: there are now only 144 rates below 5.25% in Canstar’s database, down from 227 just a week earlier.
Canstar.com.au’s data insights director Sally Tindall said a wave of pass‑through is already locked in.
“Around 50 lenders have announced they’ll be passing on last Tuesday’s rate hike in full to their variable rate borrowers,” Tindall said.
“While a small handful of lenders have fired off hikes already, CBA, NAB, and ANZ are holding off until this Friday 13 February, Westpac is next Tuesday, while Macquarie isn’t moving until Friday 20 February.”
She reminded borrowers that the impact is not instant – a key message for brokers to relay to anxious clients.
“It’s also worth remembering that, as a borrower, the bank might hike your interest rate in the next week or so, but that it’s going to take between one and three months to flow through to your mortgage rate, because it needs to send you a note outlining your new minimum monthly repayments, give you notice to get your finances in order, and even then it’s subject to where you are in your monthly billing cycle,” Tindall said.
For brokers, that delay is a window to act – reviewing every client’s rate, refinancing where possible, and chasing repricing from existing lenders before higher repayments land.
“Right now, the lowest variable rate, of those lenders that have indicated what they’ll be doing post-rate hike, will be sitting at 5.25%, while we expect the market average for owner-occupiers will be 5.77%. Time for a rate check on your loan,” Tindall said.
The Canstar leader said many borrowers are now asking “‘why me?’” as higher rates hit mortgage holders and renters hardest.
“This conversation comes down to the very blunt instrument the RBA has been given to a) keep prices in check and b) Australians in jobs. Seems like two important tasks with not enough tools, when the government holds the key to the rules and tools,” Tindall said.
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