{"id":604024,"date":"2026-09-18T06:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T06:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/604024\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T06:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T06:38:11","slug":"major-bank-cuts-two-year-mortgage-rate-raises-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/604024\/","title":{"rendered":"Major bank cuts two-year mortgage rate \u2013 raises others"},"content":{"rendered":"

Westpac is cutting its two-year fixed home loan rate while increasing its other mortgage rates, saying a sharp rise in funding costs is flowing through to longer-term lending.<\/p>\n

The bank announced today that its advertised special two-year fixed rate will fall 16 basis points to 5.29% from Monday, which it says will be the lowest advertised two-year rate among the country’s five largest banks.<\/p>\n

At the same time, most other Westpac fixed home loan rates will increase by between 0.10 and 0.26 percentage points.<\/p>\n

The six-month special rate will rise to 4.89%, the one-year rate to 5.19%, the 18-month rate to 5.45%, and the three-year rate to 5.59%. Four and five-year rates will increase to 5.65% and 5.75% respectively.<\/p>\n

Its standard rates for those with less than 20% equity will also change. <\/p>\n

In line with expectations, the Monetary Policy Committee adjusted the OCR from 2.5% to 2.75%.\u00a0 (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Westpac NZ’s Sarah Hearn said recent global events had pushed up wholesale interest rates<\/a> used by banks to fund longer-term loans.<\/p>\n

“Even with today’s rate changes, we’re absorbing a lot of our recent cost increases rather than passing them on to homeowners,” she said.<\/p>\n

Geopolitical tensions had contributed to the increase in wholesale funding costs, she added, warning borrowers to consider how future interest rate movements could affect them.<\/p>\n

“With the OCR forecast to rise over the next year<\/a>, now is a good time to think about your home loan strategy and what options may be best for you.”<\/p>\n

Term deposit rates increase<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The bank is encouraging customers to review their home loan strategy as interest rate expectations shift. (Source: istock.com)<\/p>\n

Westpac is also increasing some term deposit rates<\/a>, with longer-term savings products rising by between 0.10 and 0.25 percentage points.<\/p>\n

Its 12-month term deposit rate will increase to 4%, while the 18-month rate will rise to 4.30%.<\/p>\n

The three-year rate will increase to 4.60%, and both the four and five-year rates will rise to 4.85%.<\/p>\n

Shorter-term deposit rates, including those of six months or less, will remain unchanged.<\/p>\n

The new rates take effect on September 21.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Westpac is cutting its two-year fixed home loan rate while increasing its other mortgage rates, saying a sharp…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":604025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,111,139,69,244],"class_list":["post-604024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-personal-finance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604024","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=604024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/604025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}