A non-major has raised its industry leading low rate for one year fixed home loans above four per cent.
SBS Bank ultra-low special one year rate of 3.99% has ended with the term’s special fixed home loan rate now sitting at 4.35%, the NZ Herald reports.
The 3.99% rate was launched in November as part of a re-brand and push into Auckland and other parts of the country outside its Southland home base.
Loan Market mortgage adviser Karen Tatterson told the newspaper that the rate was only going to be available for a limited time and she had been informed of the change.
"I don't think it was deliberately done over the holidays,” says Tatterson. “I think they planned to do it for just six or eight weeks."
Tatterson said she believed SBS had got a bit of traction from offering the special as not many other banks had been prepared to match it.
"In some cases they did, but others were not, which is always what happens."
Tatterson said she expected rates to settle around the low fours for the next six to 12 months.
She also said there had been little reaction by banks to the US Federal Reserve hiking its official cash rate on December 17. There had been some expectation before the Christmas break that banks would raise their longer fixed term rates in response.
"I believe the banks are happy at that level, they are still making money so there's no need for them to increase rates,” said Tatterson.
