Sub‑6 per cent fixed rates are officially history.
ANZ has jacked up fixed home loans by up to 0.40 percentage points, hoisting its cheapest one‑year deal to 6.34 per cent and squeezing buyer budgets just as the autumn auction calendar fills.
It’s the bank’s second fixed‑rate rise in 19 days and wipes ANZ’s sub‑6 offerings from the board, a sharp signal that lenders are repositioning ahead of further moves from the Reserve Bank.
Among the big four, Westpac remains the outlier with a 5.79 per cent one‑year fix – but market watchers predict it won’t last long.
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Rate tracking from Canstar shows 52 lenders have lifted at least one fixed rate since the RBA’s last increase 15 days ago, including CBA and NAB alongside Macquarie, Bendigo, ING and BOQ.
The average one‑year fixed rate now sits 0.27 percentage points above the average variable rate, after the two were roughly on par late last year.
Source: Canstar
Even the sharpest fixed deals are drifting up, with the lowest now 5.59 per cent from Regional Australia Bank, Pacific Mortgage Group and Northern Inland Credit Union.
“Seeing ANZ’s lowest fixed rate jump to 6.34 per cent is a stark reminder of how quickly the interest rate tide has turned,” Canstar.com.au data insights director, Sally Tindall, says.
“With over 50 lenders hiking fixed rates in just the last 15 days, it’s clear the market is pricing in further hikes to come, as the fallout from the war in the Middle East starts to hit costs across Australia.
“Fixed rates are typically the early warning signal for where rates are headed. When a bank ratchets them up twice in less than three weeks it’s a sign there’s a lot more turbulence ahead.
“ANZ is far from alone in hiking fixed rates. Three of the big banks have now hiked these rates in the space of five days. Westpac, now the lowest out of the big banks in the fixed rate space, is likely to be days away from lifting rates as well.
Source: Canstar
“Westpac’s own economists have ramped up their forecast of how many hikes we still have waiting in the wings, with the bank now predicting we’ll see another three in the next three RBA meetings.
Ms Tindall adds that some borrowers could now be thinking about flipping over to fixed.
“If that’s you, take a clear-headed approach, weigh up the risks on both sides, keeping in mind the extra conditions and restrictions that come with locking in your rate,” she says.
“The cash rate could well rise again as soon as next month, but the fallout from the war, if it hits the Australian economy and jobs market hard, could also push the RBA into reverting back to cuts in the not too distant future.”
Source: Canstar
For property, higher fixed rates bite in two places: they shrink borrowing capacity and they raise holding costs, particularly for buyers relying on repayment certainty.
Expect some heat to come out of bidder pools and more cautious price guides as vendors gauge how deep demand runs through April and May.
Whether to fix now is a line‑ball call that hinges on the path of the cash rate and your own risk tolerance.
Canstar compared the average of the three lowest one‑year fixed rates (5.67 per cent) with the average of the three lowest variable rates (5.56 per cent) on a $600,000 loan with 25 years remaining.
If there are no further hikes, sticking with one of the lowest variable rates could save about $659 in interest over the next 12 months.
If there’s one more hike, fixing for a year comes out ahead, saving roughly $586 in interest.
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