Kiwibank offers 4.99% home loan rate

This time it's 4.99% for six-month fixed mortgages – its earlier special was for one year at that rate. As with the previous special, the offer is open only to those with at least 30% equity.

Unlike the first special, the latest offer is clearly not in response to further falls in wholesale interest rates – in fact, wholesale rates have risen.

Doug Steel at Bank of New Zealand says since the end of May bank-bill futures have risen about 42 basis points from 2.35% to 2.77% while the one-year swap rate – both benchmarks for pricing mortgages – has risen 39 points to 2.67%.

Kiwibank spokesman Bruce Thompson describes the latest special as “a marketing promotion. The last promotion was successful for us and we're looking to maintain momentum.”