Borrowers turn to short term mortgage rates in droves

Mortgage borrowers are so confident interest rates will come down even further this year, nearly half the mortgage money borrowed in November was on floating rates.

Residential lending totalled $7.6 billion, up 1.2% from $7.5 billion in October and up 21.8% from $6.2 in November 2023.

RBNZ data show of the total residential lending 47.4% of the lending was taken out by borrowers on floating interest rates. In other words. lending on fixed interest rates dropped to 52.6% - the lowest since the survey began in April 2021.

Borrowers started taking out new mortgages and re-fixing existing mortgages on floating and short-term fixed interest rates when the RBNZ started cutting the OCR in August of last year.