ME jumps on the bandwagon, cuts rates for owner occupiers and investors

Today, ME Bank announced it will be cutting rates across a range of its packaged and non-packaged home loans for fixed and variable rates.

The cuts range between 8 and 26 basis points and will apply to offerings for both owner-occupiers and investors, effective today.

This follows similar moves by ANZ and Macquarie, which both slashed rates across several of their products last week and Mozo Online Home Lender of the Year, Tic:Toc, which slashed its rate to the lowest in the market following the RBA rate decision.

ME’s fixed rates saw the largest cuts, with 3 year fixed rates for owner occupiers dropping by 21 basis points and 2 year rates for investors dropping by 26 basis points.

Owner occupiers who sign up for the fixed rate Flexible Home Loan (Member Package) can now receive an interest rate from as low as 3.58% p.a. (4.26% comparison rate*).

Flexible Home Loan (Member Package) Fixed Rates

Product	Previous rate	Change	Current rate
3 Year Owner Occupier, P&I, ≥80% LVR	3.79% p.a.	-0.21%	3.58% p.a. (4.26% p.a. comparison rate*)
3 Year Owner Occupier, P&I, 80-90% LVR	3.79% p.a.	-0.21%	3.58% p.a. (4.58% p.a. comparison rate*)
2 Year Investor, P&I, ≥80% LVR	4.14% p.a.	-0.26%	3.88% p.a. (4.54% p.a. comparison rate*)
2 Year Investor, P&I, 80-90% LVR	4.14% p.a.	-0.26%	3.88% p.a. (4.68% p.a. comparison rate*)

With key funding costs now much lower than they were last year ME is one of many lenders going ahead with variable rates cuts. It reduced variable rates for owner occupiers by 8 basis points.

Borrowers paying principal and interest on a loan from $400,000 with an LVR of 80% or less can now receive a variable rate of 3.79% p.a. (4.22% p.a. comparison rate*) on the variable rate ME Flexible Home Loan Member Package.

Variable rates for investment loans saw reductions of 10 basis points. Interest rates now sit at 4.17% p.a. (4.59% p.a. comparison rate) for investment loans of between $150,000 and $700,000.

Flexible Home Loan (Member Package) Variable Rates

Product	Previous rate	Change	Current rate
Owner Occupier, P&I, $400,000-$700,000	3.87% p.a.	-0.08	3.79% p.a. (4.22% p.a. comparison rate*)
Owner Occupier, P&I, ≥$700,000	3.87% p.a.	-0.08	3.79% p.a. (4.22% p.a. comparison rate*)
Investor, P&I, $150,000-$400,000	4.27% p.a.	-0.10	4.17% p.a. (4.59% p.a. comparison rate*)
Investor, P&I, $400,000-$700,000	4.27% p.a.	-0.10	4.17% p.a. (4.59% p.a. comparison rate*)
Investor, P&I, ≥$700,000	4.27% p.a.	-0.10	4.17% p.a. (4.59% p.a. comparison rate*)

Is now the time to get a home loan?

With all the cuts that have been made as of late, those of us with our eyes on the market might be tempted to finally take the next step.

But if you’re thinking about locking in a fixed rate, Mozo Product Data Manager Peter Marshall suggests waiting before making any moves.

“Fixed rates are much lower with cuts being made ahead of one or two cuts to the RBA cash rate before the end of this year,” he said

“While it might be tempting to grab one of the very low fixed rates around right now, if the RBA cuts the cash rate by 50bp over coming months we could be seeing variable rates that start with a '2', so it might be worth sticking with a variable rate for now until we see what happens.”

For an idea of what variable rates look like at the moment, be sure to check out our variable rate home loan comparison page, or check out some of the options below.