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Westpac has followed National Australia Bank’s lead and hiked home loan interest rates for both owner occupiers and property investors, Fairfax Media has reported.
The major bank announced it would increase rates for owner occupiers by 0.03 percentage points to 5.32% for customers making principal and interest repayments.
For owner occupiers making just interest payments, their rates will increase by 0.08 percentage points to 5.49%.
Property investor loans will climb by 0.23 points and 0.28 on interest repayment only loans to 5.79% and 5.96%.
The bank cited the rate change is in response to increasing funding costs.
“We understand the significance of interest rate changes to our home loan customers, so we take a very careful approach to these decisions,” Westpac’s chief executive of consumer banking, Mr Frazis said.
“We try to balance the needs of both owner occupiers and investors in making these decisions while continuing to provide customers with a competitive offering across our range of products.”
Variable rate small business loans will also increase by 0.08 percentage points.
Westpac’s rate hike follows a similar move by NAB made yesterday, of 0.07 points and 0.25 points for investors, again pointing to increased funding costs and concerns about its level of lending to investors as the reason behind the decision.
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