Looking to take out a home loan soon? Savings.com.au has collated some of the lowest-rate fixed home loans on the market for you to consider.
Whether you’re looking to buy your first home, buy another one for your family, or refinance your current home loan to a better value one, Savings.com.au has compiled some of the lowest fixed home loan interest rates available on the market this month for both owner-occupiers and investors. We’ll be comparing some of the lowest fixed home loan rates available for:
Here is a snapshot of some of the lowest fixed home loan rates from a variety of lenders.
Further guides & resources:
A fixed interest rate, as the name might suggest, fixes the interest rate you pay in place for the duration of the term specified. For example, a three-year fixed interest rate at 2.50% p.a. will stay at that 2.50% p.a. rate for three years regardless of economic pressures or the lender’s needs, before reverting to a standard variable rate.
Cash flow certainty is arguably the biggest advantage of a fixed-rate loan. Your repayments staying the same for a known period of time can make it much easier to budget, as you know exactly how much your repayments will be. This often makes fixed-rate home loans popular for investors and first-time buyers over the first two-three years that they own a property for.
Of course, this can also be a disadvantage if interest rates drop. The locked nature of a fixed rate home loan means any reductions in a lender’s interest rates for any reason (such as recent changes to the cash rate) won’t be passed on to you, which can cause you to lose out on hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Also the variable rate the loan will revert to at the end of the fixed-rate period (known as the revert rate) can be significantly higher than some of the lower variable rates on offer, so you may want to consider refinancing to a different loan around this time.
A variable rate home loan, on the other hand, is a home loan where your interest rate will move along with changes to the market. So if you have a home loan with a variable rate of 2.50% p.a. interest rate, and your lender decides to drop rates by 25 basis points, your home loan rate should now be 2.25% p.a.
Although variable rate home loans have a higher degree of uncertainty than fixed loans, they can be cheaper for you, particularly in times where rates are regularly falling. They also tend to have appealing features like the ability to make extra repayments, offset accounts and redraw facilities, which most fixed loans don’t allow.
See our article on fixed vs variable rates to learn more about which one you should choose, and see what interest rates are currently to give you an idea of whether they might rise or fall.
A low interest rate can make a HUGE difference to your overall costs, so it can be crucial to get a good one.
Let’s compare two 30-year home loans, at 2.50% p.a. and 3.50% p.a. These rates are higher than many of the rates seen in this article, but the unfortunate truth is there are still many people stuck on these higher rates at the moment without knowing there are better options out there.
This extra 1% point on a home loan can vastly inflate a person’s repayments. The table below shows the difference in monthly repayments for various loan amounts, on loans with no introductory rates or fees.
| Loan amount | 2.50% | 3.50% | Monthly savings at 2.50% | Total savings at 3.50% |
| $300,000 | $1,185.36 | $1,347.13 | $161.77 | $58,238.52 |
| $400,000 | $1,580.48 | $1,796.18 | $215.7 | $77,649.22 |
| $500,000 | $1,975.60 | $2,245.22 | $269.62 | $97,062.85 |
| $700,000 | $2,765.85 | $3,143.31 | $377.46 | $135,889.13 |
Calculations made via Savings.com.au's Home Loan Comparison Calculator.
Even a small change in interest rates can add extra tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands to the overall cost of your home loan.
The big four banks – ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac – dominate the home loan market, holding around 80% of all residential mortgages. This makes Australia’s home loan market one of the most concentrated in the world when it comes to the major banks. What’s more, they have nearly $1.4 trillion in housing loans at the moment, with just under $900 billion of this dedicated to owner-occupied housing.
Customer-owned banks, also called mutual banks, are banks not beholden to shareholder profits. The mutual sector held combined assets of $138 billion in 2020, according to KPMG. This is about 2.6% of total assets across all deposit-taking institutions, although this number has been growing sharply in recent years.
Representatives of customer-owned banks argue that this allows them to pass on profits to customers in the form of lower rates and fees, and there’s some merit to that argument based on some of the rates seen above.
Compare low interest rates from customer-owned banks here.
Banks and mutual banks are ‘authorised deposit-taking institutions’ and are able to offer deposit accounts like savings accounts and term deposits. Non-banks are not able to do this but are still able to offer home loans, many of which still have competitive rates.
You may see some non-banks and their related entities in the tables above, such as Resimac, State Custodians and loans.com.au.
Compare some of the lowest home loan rates from non-bank lenders here.
This is a difficult question to answer, as choosing between a fixed or variable interest rate depends on your own situation as well as the broader economic environment. For example, it might be a bad idea to fix your interest rate if:
Mortgage Choice CEO Susan Mitchell told Savings.com.au that fewer borrowers now are fixing their interest rates due to recent Reserve Bank rate cuts in 2019, saying “our home loan approval data shows that demand for fixed-rate home loans has dropped since the RBA’s back to back cash rate cuts in June and July".
But as of 2021, fixed-rate lending has seen an increase in popularity, with the majority of interest rate cuts from banks and lenders being for fixed loans. This is particularly true among the loans below the 2% per annum benchmark.
If you want secure repayments and a basic, no-frills interest rate that’s also quite low for a short period of time, then a fixed loan could be the right option for you.
“Fixed-rate home loans are a good idea if you want certainty for your home loan repayments because you might be dealing with budget constraints or foresee a change to your cash flow and you want more control over your finances,” Ms Mitchell said.
“I think we often fall into the trap of chasing the lowest interest rate and while it’s an important part of the decision when choosing a home loan, lender policy, loan structure and features should not be overlooked.
“For example, a borrower may benefit from a redraw facility or an offset account, features which come at a cost but could be beneficial to the borrower over time. It’s worth noting as well that not all borrowers will qualify for the lowest rate on the market.”
See more information in our ‘should you fix your interest rate‘ article. You can also consider a split home loan if you want to get the best of both types of interest rates.
It depends on your circumstances. Fixed interest rates are often higher than many variable rates, but if you value the security and stability of having fixed repayments for a few years, they may be worth considering. Before locking in your home loan rate for several years, consider whether interest rates are expected to rise or fall in future. One general rule of thumb you could follow is to only consider a fixed loan when the gap between average variable and fixed rates is less than 1% point. Exiting a loan before the end of the fixed period will result in a break fee, which may cost thousands, so if you're thinking about selling your home or want the freedom to switch home loans, a fixed rate mortgage may not be suitable for you.
Just about all lenders in Australia offer both fixed and variable-rate mortgages. The most common fixed rate mortgages in Australia are one-year to five-year fixed rate terms, with few lenders offering 10-year fixed rate terms, and even fewer offering 15-year terms. A 30-year fixed rate mortgage is not available in Australia.
Not necessarily. As variable home loan rates can rise or fall depending on what's happening in the market, variable rates may not always be higher than a fixed rate. You'll find that the average variable rate is actually usually lower than the average fixed rate.
Switching your mortgage from a variable-rate to a fixed rate can be relatively simple, whereas switching from fixed to variable (before the end of the fixed term) can be much more of a challenge given you will likely face expensive break costs.
There may be a few reasons why there aren't 30-year fixed-rate mortgages in Australia. One simple reason might be because there's a lack of demand for them. Most Aussies are happy to take out variable-rate mortgages, knowing that variable rates often have lower interest rates than fixed rates. A slightly more complicated reason is that Australia's debt market is not developed enough to allow lenders to easily on-sell bundles of 30-year fixed mortgages to investors, so lenders are generally unwilling to offer them because it means they are likely to be stuck with 30-year fixed loans on their balance sheet.
A fixed rate home loan is a legal contract guaranteeing your mortgage will be charged a fixed rate of interest for a specified amount of time. If you decide to break a fixed rate home loan contract, your existing lender must be compensated for any loss they incur. You will have to pay two fees: a break fee (which can be very expensive) and a discharge fee, which is usually a few hundred dollars.
Although they’re becoming less popular in a low-rate environment, fixed-rate home loans still represent a viable option for many home buyers. Just make sure you consider your financial situation before committing to a fixed-rate loan, as you don’t want to make the wrong choice.
If you are looking for a good low-rate fixed loan, then these home loans could be a good place to start. You can also keep up with the latest home loan rate movements by checking our home loan news page.
The entire market was not considered in selecting the above products. Rather, a cut-down portion of the market has been considered which includes retail products from at least the big four banks, the top 10 customer-owned institutions and Australia’s larger non-banks:
Some providers' products may not be available in all states. To be considered, the product and rate must be clearly published on the product provider's web site.
In the interests of full disclosure, Savings.com.au, Performance Drive and Loans.com.au are part of the Firstmac Group. To read about how Savings.com.au manages potential conflicts of interest, along with how we get paid, please click through onto the web site links.
*Comparison rate is based on a loan of $150,000 over a term of 25 years. Please note the comparison rate only applies to the examples given. Different loan amounts and terms will result in different comparison rates. Costs such as redraw fees and costs savings, such as fee waivers, are not included in the comparison rate but may influence the cost of the loan.
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