ANZ staff offered 4.75% two-year fixed home loan rate

ANZ is leading the pack with a 4.75% staff-only rate. Photo / Alex Burton

• ANZ leads with a 4.99% two-year home loan rate, but a 4.75% rate is staff-only.
• David Cunningham, of Squirrel, says the 4.99% rate is the market’s best, and staff discounts are common.
• The Reserve Bank cut the official cash rate by 50 basis points, more cuts are expected this year.

By Susan Edmunds of RNZ

ANZ is leading the market for advertised home loan rates at the moment, with a 4.99% two-year offer.

But rumours of an even better rate, of 4.75%, have had some borrowers wondering whether they could negotiate a bit harder.

But it appears that rate is only available to staff at ANZ.

A spokesperson said, as many other companies did, it offered discounts on some products and services as part of its staff benefits package.

“For example, ANZ staff are eligible for discounted home loan rates.

“I can’t publicly discuss detail of staff remuneration packages, but there is currently a discounted two-year fixed rate available to ANZ customers as part of our staff benefits package.”

Squirrel chief executive David Cunningham said ANZ’s 4.99% rate was the best in the market and only just launched, so he would be surprised to hear about more discounting.

But he said a staff discount was common for banks, and 0.2% was standard.

The Reserve Bank cut the official cash rate by 50 basis points this week and more, 25bp, cuts are expected this year.

Westpac chief economist Kelly Eckhold said he expected short-term mortgage and floating rates should drop further as those OCR reductions came through.

“But longer-term interest rates already fully reflect the OCR moving to the 3 to 3.25% area so it’s hard to see much further movement in the absence of competitive impacts on bank margins which I have no insight on.”

On Friday, Kiwibank said it was cutting its home loan special rates to 5.19% for one and two years.