{"id":545731,"date":"2026-07-27T05:56:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T05:56:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/545731\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T05:56:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T05:56:13","slug":"westpac-the-first-to-increase-home-loan-rates-after-recent-swap-rate-jumps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/545731\/","title":{"rendered":"Westpac the first to increase home loan rates after recent swap rate jumps"},"content":{"rendered":"

In response to rising wholesale interest rates<\/a>, Westpac NZ is the first bank to shift fixed home loan rates higher in this cycle.<\/p>\n

Its new levels are increases of between six basis points (bps) and 26 bps.<\/p>\n

And Westpac now has rates above main rivals for terms of one year through three years.<\/p>\n

This certainly is the first ‘crack in the dam’.<\/p>\n

The wholesale rate track has moved up notably in the past week or so, mostly on geopolitical influences. We have also noted that a new long term trend may have started, ending the 25 year down-trend, and the next long term trend will likely reverse the direction. Geopolitical risk raises the premium those who provide the capital require, and there are a growing range of long-term risks appearing. It is a trend that is completely agnostic to what is going on in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Other local banks are sure to follow Westpac because they face the same pressure, and will no doubt appreciate that someone else has gone first.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Westpac has raised its 18 month term deposit (TD) rate by 20 bps to 4.20% and its three year TD rate by 10 bps to 4.40%. But it hasn’t changed any TD rate in the popular six month to one year range.<\/p>\n

To compare mortgage rate offers in a way that includes the application and account fees costs, (or break fee costs if you need to do that), and applying the impact of a cashback\/legal fee reimbursement, or other incentives, you can use our home loan comparison calculator.<\/a> You can find it here<\/a>. Or, for convenience, we have added it to the bottom of this article.<\/p>\n

Negotiate, (even with your mortgage broker). How flexible banks may be will depend on the strength of your financials.<\/p>\n

One other useful way to make sense of the changed home loan rates is to use our full-function mortgage calculator<\/a> which is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And if you already have a fixed term mortgage that is not up for renewal at this time, our break fee calculator<\/a> may help you assess your options. Break fees will be minimal in a rising market.<\/p>\n

Here is the snapshot of the lowest advertised fixed-term mortgage rates on offer from the key retail banks at the moment.<\/p>\n

Select chart tabs<\/p>\n

2 years %
\n 6 months %
\n 1 year %
\n 18 months %
\n 3 years %
\n 4 years %
\n 5 years %<\/p>\n

Select chart tabs<\/p>\n

1 year %
\n 2 years %
\n 3 years %
\n 4 years %
\n 5 years %
\n 7 years %
\n 10 years %<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In response to rising wholesale interest rates, Westpac NZ is the first bank to shift fixed home loan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174762,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-545731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}