{"id":545808,"date":"2026-07-27T07:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T07:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/545808\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T07:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T07:08:10","slug":"major-bank-lifts-fixed-mortgage-rates-blames-middle-east-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/545808\/","title":{"rendered":"Major bank lifts fixed mortgage rates, blames Middle East war"},"content":{"rendered":"

A major bank is raising its fixed home loan rates on terms of one to three years, blaming a jump in costs driven by renewed conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Westpac NZ said the changes would take effect tomorrow, with its one-year advertised special rate (for those with minimum 20% equity) rising 0.20% to 4.99% per annum.<\/p>\n

The 18-month and two-year special rates would each climb 0.26%, to 5.35% and 5.45% respectively, while the three-year special rate would edge up 0.06% to 5.35%.<\/p>\n

The bank’s six-month special rate was unchanged at 4.69%, and its four and five-year special rates were also held, at 5.39% and 5.49%.<\/p>\n

Westpac NZ managing director of consumer bank and wealth Helen Ryder said, “re-escalating tensions in the Middle East have once again driven up wholesale interest rates, causing bank funding costs to rise”.<\/p>\n

“Most wholesale interest rates are now over 0.30% higher than they were a month ago, so with today’s changes we are passing on some of those higher costs but also absorbing some,” Ryder said.<\/p>\n

\"Westpac<\/p>\n

Westpac bank (File photo). (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

The move comes just six weeks after the bank cut some longer fixed-term rates.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ryder said: “Despite some upward pressure, we’ve kept our longer-term housing rates unchanged as we recognise some customers may be looking at the economic outlook and thinking about fixing for a longer period to get certainty over their loan repayments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also working really hard to provide good value and options for savings customers, including a leading 9-month term deposit rate of 3.70% p.a.<\/p>\n

The bank was also raising some other term deposit rates, including its 18-month rate by 0.20% to 4.20% and its three-year rate by 0.10% to 4.40%. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs always, we encourage people to talk to us sooner rather than later if they have any concerns about their money situation, so we can make a plan to help keep them on track.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A major bank is raising its fixed home loan rates on terms of one to three years, blaming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,111,139,69,244,814],"class_list":["post-545808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-personal-finance","tag-property"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545808","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=545808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}