Financial comparison site Mozo has completed its annual mystery shop to see how willing the big four banks are to negotiate rates with a different borrower types.
Acting as a first home buyer, a refinancer and an investor, Mozo’s property expert Steve Jovcevski approached the market’s major players to see how much he could shave off the banks’ official rates.
The results give brokers a good idea of the room available to move while trying to find the best deals for clients.
While
ANZ was the most generous overall, Jovcevski found the banks were generally more willing to lower rates if he approached them as an investor. The full table of results can be seen below:
| Bank |
Borrower type |
SVR |
Mystery shop rate |
Total discount |
| ANZ |
First home buyer |
5.25% |
4.05% |
1.20% |
| Refinancer |
5.25% |
3.95% |
1.30% |
| Investor |
5.52% |
4.07% |
1.45% |
| CBA |
First home buyer |
5.22% |
4.02% |
1.20% |
| Refinancer |
5.22% |
4.02% |
1.20% |
| Investor |
5.49% |
4.40% |
1.09% |
| NAB |
First home buyer |
5.25% |
4.10% |
1.15% |
| Refinancer |
5.25% |
4.02% |
1.23% |
| Investor |
5.40% |
4.07% |
1.33% |
| Westpac |
First home buyer |
5.29% |
4.34% |
0.95% |
| Refinancer |
5.29% |
4.31% |
0.98% |
| Investor |
5.56% |
4.25% |
1.21% |
“Three out of four major banks reserved their largest discounts for investors. This is a big difference from last year’s mystery shop when no additional discounts were offered to investors as the big four scaled back their investor loan books in a bid to meet APRA regulations,” Jovcevski told
Australian Broker.
With investors able to haggle up to 1.45% off the standard variable rates, this showed the big four banks are now no longer reigning in their investor lending.
Other types of lenders are not left in the dark here however, with Jovcevski also being offered lower rates as a first home buyer or refinancer.
“Increasing competition in the home loan space particularly from non-bank lenders have prompted the banks to offer generous discounts of up to 1.3% for owner occupiers as well as other perks like frequent flyer points,” he said.
