The Queensland-based bank cut the advertised rates on its Basic Home Loans for new owner occupier principal and interest (P&I) loans with loan-to-value ratios (LVR) ≤60% and 60-70%.

Here are the new rates:

Product

Change (%)

New rate

Comparison rate*

Basic Variable (P&I) ≤60% LVR

-0.10

5.99% p.a.

6.02% p.a.

Basic Variable (P&I)

60-70% LVR

-0.15

5.99% p.a.

6.02% p.a.

Auswide Bank's Basic Home Loan comes with no monthly or ongoing fees and a redraw facility.

The trade-off is there are no fixed rates or offset account available with its Basic Home Loan.

The Bundaberg-based bank now joins a small group of lenders offering variable home loan rates under 6% p.a. including CommBank's digital lender Unloan, Tiimely (formerly tic:toc), and Heritage Bank.

Auswide's loan book had gone backwards in the last six months of 2023 after intense competition in the lending market, which saw a flurry of cashback offers and rate cutting to win customers coming off pandemic-era fixed rate home loans.

In its latest interim financial report, Auswide said it kept a "more conservative approach" to home lending at the time and was targeting loan book growth in the second half of the 2024 financial year.

That strategy may be behind its latest move.

AMP Bank drops fixed rates

The only other mover on the market this week was AMP Bank which cut rates on a range of its residential and investment Professional Package fixed loans by up to 20 basis points.

Its new best rate on a Professional Package residential loan is 6.24% p.a. (6.89% p.a. comparison rate*) for LVR ≤80% with P&I payments, fixed for five years - a drop of 20 basis points.

AMP's Professional Package loans come with offset accounts, fixed and variable rate options, a redraw facility, and an annual fee of $349.

No move in the cash rate

The moves come in a week where the Reserve Bank of Australia board again opted to leave the official cash rate on hold at 4.35%.

The statement issued after its June meeting on Tuesday contained the usual rhetoric on the RBA's quest to bring inflation to its 2-3% target range and doing "what is necessary to achieve that outcome".

Some commentators found the nuance a little more hawkish than previous statements and even went so far as to suggest RBA governor Michele Bullock made note of the inflationary fallout from recent federal and state budgets.

But Ms Bullock is far too circumspect to be getting into politics.

Other mortgage market news

Also, this week, the latest home lending data shows mortgage arrears are rising in Australia from their COVID lows of 1% in 2022 to 1.6% in the March quarter of 2024.

CoreLogic said the higher arrears figure is linked to the sharp rise in the cost of home loan debt.

The average variable interest rate on outstanding owner occupier home loans jumped from 2.86% in April 2022 to 6.39% in March 2024.

In monetary terms, this adds almost $1,600 in monthly repayments for a borrower with $750,000 debt.

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Buying a home or looking to refinance? The table below features home loans with some of the lowest interest rates on the market for owner occupiers.

Update resultsUpdate
Filters
LenderHome LoanInterest Rate Comparison Rate* Monthly Repayment Repayment type Rate Type Offset Redraw Ongoing Fees Upfront Fees LVR Lump Sum Repayment Additional Repayments Split Loan Option TagsFeaturesLinkCompare
6.04% p.a.
6.06% p.a.
$2,408
Principal & Interest
Variable
$0
$530
90%
 Featured 4.6 Star Customer Ratings
  • No monthly or ongoing fees
  • Unlimited free redraw
  • No application fee
5.99% p.a.
5.90% p.a.
$2,396
Principal & Interest
Variable
$0
$0
80%
 Featured Apply In Minutes
  • No application or ongoing fees. Annual rate discount
  • Unlimited redraws & additional repayments. LVR <80%
  • A low-rate variable home loan from a 100% online lender. Backed by the Commonwealth Bank.
6.09% p.a.
6.11% p.a.
$2,421
Principal & Interest
Variable
$0
$250
60%
 Featured Unlimited Redraws
  • No annual fees - None!
  • Get fast pre-approval
  • Unlimited additional repayments free of charge
  • Redraw freely - Access your additional payments when you need them
  • Home loan specialists available today
Important Information and Comparison Rate Warning

Base criteria of: a $400,000 loan amount, variable, fixed, principal and interest (P&I) home loans with an LVR (loan-to-value) ratio of at least 80%. However, the ‘Compare Home Loans’ table allows for calculations to be made on variables as selected and input by the user. Some products will be marked as promoted, featured or sponsored and may appear prominently in the tables regardless of their attributes. All products will list the LVR with the product and rate which are clearly published on the product provider’s website. Monthly repayments, once the base criteria are altered by the user, will be based on the selected products’ advertised rates and determined by the loan amount, repayment type, loan term and LVR as input by the user/you. *The Comparison rate is based on a $150,000 loan over 25 years. Warning: this comparison rate is true only for this example and may not include all fees and charges. Different terms, fees or other loan amounts might result in a different comparison rate. Rates correct as of . View disclaimer.

Important Information and Comparison Rate Warning

Image by Jamie Haughton on Unsplash



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