The big four banks are slashing their variable mortgage rates to win market share ahead of a pendingOn Friday, Commonwealth Bank cut its lowest variable rate by 0.1 per cent to 2.19 per cent following a cut on Thursday by Westpac of its lowest variable rate to 2.09 per cent.Those low rates apply to borrowers who can put down a deposit of 30 per cent or more as the banks compete for lower-risk borrowers.
The cuts to variable mortgage rates coincide with dramatic increases in fixed-rate mortgage offerings as three- and five-year bond rates continue to soar.Commonwealth Bank’s three-year fixed mortgage rate was raised on Friday by 0.3 per cent to 3.79 per cent, which is now more than 1.5 per cent higher than the variable rate offering.
Variable rates, by contrast, have been cut from around 2.72 per cent to between 2.09 and 2.19 per cent by the big four banks.as global interest rate traders have anticipated that central banks will embark of an aggressive rate-rising cycle to counter higher inflation.