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Westpac slashes fixed rates, pouring more fuel on the fixed rate fire sale

Westpac slashes fixed rates, pouring more fuel on the fixed rate fire sale

11 Apr, 2019 - 2 min read

Westpac has announced it is cutting fixed rates on a range of owner occupier and investor home loans by up to 0.20 per cent, effective tomorrow.

Westpac’s decision comes in the wake of a spate of fixed rate cuts from Australian banks in recent months, including the nation’s largest bank, CBA, who moved their rates on Tuesday.

This is the second time this year that Westpac has cut some of its fixed home loans, after cutting some of its 2-year fixed rates in February.

RateCity.com.au research shows 40 lenders have cut fixed rates on around 450 products since the beginning of the year.

ANZ is the only big bank to have not cut its fixed rates this year.

The rate cuts include:

Westpac Fixed Option Home Loans, Premier Advantage Package

Owner occupiers, principal and interest

Term	Old rate	New rate	Change
3 year	3.89%	3.79%	-0.10%
4 year	4.29%	4.09%	-0.20%
5 year	4.19%	4.09%	-0.10%

Investors, principal and interest

Term	Old rate	New rate	Change
2 year	3.95%	3.89%	-0.06%
3 year	4.19%	3.99%	-0.20%
5 year	4.49%	4.39%	-0.10%

Sally Tindall, Research Director at RateCity.com.au, said other banks were likely to continue to slash fixed rates, especially now the nation’s biggest two banks had moved in the space of a week.

“Right now, the banks have one eye on the possibility of a rate cut and the other on securing new customers. As a result, more than 40 lenders have dropped their rates since the beginning of the year.

“Competitively priced fixed rates are a great marketing tool to secure new customers and keep them on their books for up to five years.

“But with a rate cut on the horizon, potentially in the second half of 2019, Australians are reluctant to lock in their rate.

“This week’s housing finance data shows just 16 per cent of new loans taken out are fixed,” she said.

Disclaimer

This article is over two years old, last updated on April 11, 2019. While RateCity makes best efforts to update every important article regularly, the information in this piece may not be as relevant as it once was. Alternatively, please consider checking recent home loans articles.

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This article was reviewed by Personal Finance Editor Alex Ritchie before it was published as part of RateCity's Fact Check process.

Laine Gordon

Money Editor

Laine Gordon is the Money Editor at RateCity and an experienced journalist and research specialist. With a background in news and feature writing, covering finance, media and even food (a passion of hers) at Reed Elsevier publications, Laine brings almost two decades of experience to the team. Having covered major areas of interest to the general public from hip pocket issues to rising and falling interest rates and the impact to mortgages, credit and saving in Australia, she is passionate about researching and telling people’s stories to help others make better decisions about their own finances.