Mortgage holders still hedging their bets

With another 0.25% OCR cut this month already baked in by the financial markets, most mortgage holders are expected to start moving to longer-term rates after that. 

The ANZ, the country’s biggest home lender, has warned that mortgage holders have only months not quarters to make the switch to longer terms as the bottom of the mortgage cycle is near, with rates on track to bottom out late this year or early next year.

It says the window for fixing longer term rates could close rapidly if economic data starts to improve.

The RBNZ’s September data shows total monthly new residential lending dropped to $7.9 billion from $8.2 billion in August but was up 21.5% from $6.5 billion in the same month last year.