Fixed rate home loan approvals drop to below 3%

The popularity of fixed interest rate home loans across Australia has continued to fall, according to October 2009 data from Mortgage Choice, Australia’s largest independently-owned mortgage broker. Fixed rate loans now account for less than 3% of all new loan approvals, while the demand for variable rate loans rose by two percentage points, to 97% of approvals.

Fixed rate products have accounted for less than 10% of the company’s new loan approvals for the past 16 months, while variable rate loans have become almost exclusively the loan of choice for recent home loan borrowers.
Full Story

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd has raised the interest rates across all its residential loans by the same amount as the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) 25 basis point rate rise announced on Tuesday.

Bendigo said its standard variable rate for new and existing home loans will rise from 6.15 per cent to 6.4 per cent from Monday, November 9.

“In setting interest rates, Bendigo and Adelaide Bank takes into account all of its key stakeholders - borrowers, depositors and shareholders - to reach a fair balance,” the bank said in a statement on Wednesday.
Full Story