Source: Radio New Zealand
Westpac also recently uppped its rates. 123RF
Kiwibank is the latest bank to raise home loan interest rates, as concern grows about the future path of inflation.
It said it was increasing a number of its fixed-term home loans.
The one-year special lifts from 4.59 percent to 4.65 percent. The two-year special rises from 5.09 percent to 5.29 percent, the three-year from 5.45 percent to 5.55 percent, the four-year from 5.79 percent to 5.89 percent and the five-year from 5.89 percent to 5.99 percent.
It follows a similar move from Westpac last week. On Friday, Westpac sais it was lifting its one-year home loan rates by 10 basis points and its 18-month rate by 14.
Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernna said the one-year rate would still be attractive to borrowers because it was lower, but the three-year rate was offering certainty at a price that was still “pretty close”.
“If you’re with BNZ and can still access their three-year 5.29 percent rate, I’d be locking it in ASAP.”
He said wholesale rates had not moved a huge amount over the past couple of weeks, so it was not immediately clear what had sparked the recent bank moves.
They might have been holding off a bit, he said, hoping wholesale markets would fall again but had to move when they didn’t.
“It’s probably the overall trend that you’d expect, given inflation and price pressures.”
He said it seemed likely that other banks would move in a similar way.
“They do tend to sort of follow each other. So you’re probably going to see the likes of ASB and BNZ following at some stage.”
He said Tuesday’s inflation update had been worse than expected, which meant the Reserve Bank potentially had less room to move going into the current fuel price crisis.
Sign up for Money with Susan Edmunds, a weekly newsletter covering all the things that affect how we make, spend and invest money.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
