Weekly Home Loan report - 2 May 2005

Weekly Home Loan report

BNZ ends its promise

The home loan rate market has fallen into a bit of a hiatus over the past week, partly because it was a short week, and also because the Reserve Bank chose to leave the Official Cash Rate unchanged.

The main piece of news is that Bank of New Zealand’s Unbeatable campaign finished on Friday.

However, the bank is still selling fixed two-year home loans at 7.60% under the Classic Home Loan name.

The end of the “Unbeatable” campaign means that it no longer promises to beat any of the other major lenders.

Its standard two-year rate is 7.80% which is the same as other banks.

Looking at what is on offer we currently have floating home loan rates ranging from a low of 7.85% (Silver Fern) to a high of 9.25% (Headstart). However the range is very tight once the outliers are taken out of the equation. Under this scenario most floating rates are between 8.45% (New Zealand Mortgage Funds) and 9.05% (Westpac).

In the competitive two-year fixed rate market the range is much wider, with Kiwibank the lowest at 7.50% and NZ Mortgage Funds the highest at 8.45%. Most of the banks are offering two-year loans around the 7.80% mark.

In the three year market the lowest rate is Bank Direct’s 7.60% and the highest is NZ Mortgage Funds at 8.38%. Westpac has its capped rate slightly higher at 8.45%.

To compare home loan rates go to http://www.goodreturns. co.nz/section/200.html

ENDS

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