{"id":185419,"date":"2025-12-10T20:27:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T20:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/185419\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T20:27:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T20:27:07","slug":"nicola-willis-urges-mortgage-holders-to-shop-around","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/185419\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicola Willis urges mortgage holders to ‘shop around’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The finance minister says mortgage holders should shop around after Westpac increased its fixed-term home loan rates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By Anneke Smith of RNZ<\/a><\/p>\n

Westpac is increasing its home loans over two-to five-year terms by 30 basis points, taking a two-year fix to 4.75%.<\/p>\n

It comes after a period of falling interest rates<\/a> that the government has made a point of publicising to say its economic plan is working.<\/p>\n

Asked about Westpac’s move to increase its rate, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said people should investigate which bank could offer them the best deal.<\/p>\n

“My message to New Zealanders is shop around. Westpac have made that choice. Other banks have not.<\/p>\n

“I really want to see New Zealanders seeing that they have some power when it comes to where they take their mortgage.<\/p>\n

“Don’t just look at the headline rates, go and hold your bank’s feet to the fire. See if another bank will give you a better rate. Make them compete with each other.<\/p>\n

“Don’t just accept that you’re getting the best deal right now. Let’s make them compete.”<\/p>\n

Simplicity Chief Economist Shamubeel Eaqub explains what is driving the markets to move in this way. (Source: Breakfast)<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the wider context was important.<\/p>\n

“We’ve been managing spending so we can manage inflation down so we can get interest rates down. For a New Zealander that’s on an average mortgage that’s $10,000 a year of savings that they’ve got through nine interest cuts already under our government.<\/p>\n

“Each bank will make its own decision about its assessment of the medium term but the Reserve Bank will continue to monitor that. What’s important is that after a world of twelve interest rate rises, we’ve had nine interest rate cuts.<\/p>\n

“Interest rates are relatively low compared to where they sit in other parts of the world now. Inflation is under control and you’re seeing signs of growth in the economy.”<\/p>\n

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said Westpac’s higher rate proved the coalition’s economic plan was not working.<\/p>\n

“They’ve built their whole narrative around lower interest rates and fixing the economy. They haven’t fixed the economy; unemployment’s gone up, business liquidation’s are up, people in hardship are up, house building has slowed down, the list could go on.<\/p>\n

“I think this highlights the problem with the government’s overall economic strategy here. They’re waiting for the Reserve Bank to save them because they haven’t got a plan to tackle the cost of living or to grow the economy.<\/p>\n

“Nicola Willis has made this problem for herself. She actually said the Reserve Bank’s one job is to keep inflation within the target plan. They don’t have a remit around employment anymore. They don’t have a remit to grow the economy. That’s the government’s job and they haven’t got a plan to do that.”<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including a new visa rules for getting into the US, more revelations about Tom Phillips, and the dramatic rescue of a stranded hiker. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The finance minister says mortgage holders should shop around after Westpac increased its fixed-term home loan rates. By…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[72,113,61,60,174,4310],"class_list":{"0":"post-185419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-property"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}