Specufestor discounts return

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From Banking Day:

There are signs of increasing competition in the investor mortgage market, with a number of lenders cutting investor rates over the past month.

According to the latest Mozo Banking Roundup, Auswide Bank, Bank of Sydney, IMB Bank, ING Direct, Police Credit Union and Suncorp all cut variable investor loan rates in October.

Variable rate cuts were between seven basis points (in IMB Bank’s case) and 15 bps. ING Direct cut the investor rate on its Mortgage Simplifier loan by 15 bps to 4.14 per cent and its Orange Advantage loan by 13 bps to 3.99 per cent.

The cheapest variable mortgage rate in the market is currently 3.35 percent, which Reduce Home Loans is offering on its Rate Buster loan.

Among the big banks, ANZ is offering the lowest variable rate – 4.03 per cent on its Simplicity Plus loan.

In the fixed rate market, Australian Unity, Auswide, Bankwest, Beyond Bank, IMB Bank, ING Direct, National Australia Bank, People’s Choice Credit Union, Suncorp and Teachers Mutual Bank all cut investor rates. Most of the changes were to three-year fixed rates.

Mozo said that overall there were more cuts than increases in the home loan market last month.

The driver here is the charming Commonwealth Bank which is piling back in, growing specufestor lending at an annualised rate of 9.6% over the last few quarters:

ANZ CBA MAC NAB SUN WBC BEN SUN Total
Sep-16 -0.1 0.7 -0.7 0.4 0.7 0.7 0.7 -0.4 0.1
Aug-16 -0.3 0.6 -1.0 0.4 -0.3 0.6 1.0 -0.3 0.3
Jul-16 -0.6 0.7 -0.6 0.3 -0.1 0.4 0.5 -0.1 0.3
Jun-16 -0.5 1.2 -0.1 0.1 1.7 0.6 -6.3 1.7 0.3
May-16 -0.4 0.9 -0.2 0.4 2.1 0.2 0.6 2.1 0.4
Apr-16 -0.2 0.5 -0.1 0.2 1.1 0.0 0.9 1.1 0.2
Mar-16 -0.2 0.2 0.0 0.3 -0.1 0.3 1.1 -0.1 0.2
Feb-16 -0.2 0.0 -0.4 0.4 -0.7 -0.1 0.1 -0.7 0.0
Jan-16 -0.1 -0.1 -0.1 0.4 -0.5 0.1 -0.3 -0.5 0.1
Dec-15 0.1 0.0 -0.5 0.5 -1.0 -0.1 -0.2 -1.0 0.1
Nov-15 0.0 -0.3 0.6 0.9 -0.9 0.3 -0.1 -0.9 0.2
Oct-15 -0.2 -0.9 -0.1 0.4 -0.8 -10.9 0.2 -0.8 -3.3
Sep-15 -0.6 -0.9 0.4 0.7 -0.5 -1.1 0.3 -0.5 -0.5
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I’d be sitting on them if I were APRA.

Still, at this stage the rebound remains muted, as the total monthly growth shows.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.