Advertisement

Big four bank hikes interest rates

Images: Getty
Images: Getty

Millions of Australians are set to pay more for their home loans after NAB announced it will hike its standard variable home loan interest rates.

The changes will come into place from Thursday 31 January, with both owner occupiers and investors set to be affected.

The move has been anxiously awaited by NAB customers after the bank abstained from hiking rates in September and October despite moves from the other three, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ and Westpac.

NAB chief customer officer Mike Baird said the decision to hike rates came down to shareholder outcomes and sustained increases in funding costs.

And, he noted, NAB was the only one of the big four banks to have not hiked its standard variable rate last September.

“We wanted to reward our existing customers for their loyalty and held off as long as we could despite being subject to the same increasing wholesale funding costs and market pressures as other major lenders,” Baird claimed.

“We have been deliberate in our approach to limit the impact on owner occupier borrowers by keeping their rates as low as possible to encourage both new and existing customers to pay down their loan sooner.”

Here are the changes:
Source: NAB
Source: NAB

NAB’s rate hikes of 0.16 per cent are roughly in line with the other major banks’ moves last year.

Commonwealth Bank lifted its rates by 0.15 per cent, while ANZ hiked its variable home loan rates by 0.16 per cent.

Make your money work with Yahoo Finance’s daily newsletter. Sign up here and stay on top of the latest money, news and tech news.

Now read: The 6 ‘rising star’ cities defying the plummeting property market in 2019

Now read: Aussie property just saw its worst fall in more than 15 years

Now read: 7 Aussie property market predictions for 2019