Australian borrowers are seeing cheap home loan deals vanish rapidly from the market as lenders continue to reset pricing after the Reserve Bank’s latest cash rate hike, fresh Canstar figures reveal.
RBA recently lifted the cash rate 25 basis points to 3.85%, warning inflation has picked up again and is likely to stay above target for some time.
The latest Canstar Weekly Rate Wrap shows 35 lenders have increased 310 owner‑occupier and investor variable home loan rates over the past week, with typical rises of 0.25 percentage points.
The number of variable rates below 5.25% on Canstar’s database has plunged to just 18, down from 69 only a week earlier, sharply narrowing the options for rate-sensitive mortgage holders hunting for competitive deals.
On average, owner-occupier borrowers paying principal and interest are now facing a variable rate of 6.17%. The sharpest offer on the market remains a 5.14% variable rate from Police Credit Union, but that sits in an increasingly exclusive club of sub‑5.25% products.
Pressure is also building in the fixed-rate segment. Thirteen lenders lifted 273 fixed rates by an average of 0.33 percentage points, a move that, according to Canstar insights director Sally Tindall, “points to a repricing that could factor in at least one more hike.”
To compare last week’s rate changes with the previous one, click here.
For customers waiting for lenders to buck the trend, the update offers little comfort.
“Perhaps the least surprising news of the lot was that there was a total of zero rate cuts across fixed and variable. No lenders are moving against this tide,” Tindall said.
Labour market data is unlikely to give the Reserve Bank much reason to pivot. Unemployment is holding at “a rock solid 4.1%,” and with monthly CPI figures due shortly and the next quarterly inflation read scheduled for late April, markets will be watching closely for any signal on whether additional cash rate increases are still on the table.
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