Mozo Live: RBA interest rate hold, home loan recap, property market must-knows

With today's RBA interest rate hold, we figured it's time to check in on the home buying market.

Right on cue, CoreLogic has released its latest "must-know property numbers." 

While easing monetary policy, cost of living relief, income growth, and improved sentiment may support housing activity – headwinds like a drawn-out rate cutting cycle, a lack of affordability, slower population growth, and cautious credit policies are likely to keep value growth contained.

It’s certainly an interesting time for home buying and home loans, especially as the trend is now toward lowering rates. 

So to further help you on your journey, here are 7 must-know property data points from the team at Corelogic:

1. Australian home values were up 0.4% in March, reversing a recent downward trend and returning to record-highs.
2. The positive movement in growth was reflected in values across most capitals, except for Hobart (-0.4%). However, the pace of gains has noticeably slowed in Perth (0.2%).
3. Largest capitals Sydney (0.3%) and Melbourne (0.5%) have turned a positive corner, with values rising over the past two months.  
4. The change in values across the different ‘price points’ has started to converge after lower priced properties led the pace of growth over the past 18 months.
5. Regional housing markets (0.5%) value growth continued to outpace the combined capitals (0.4%) in March, but growth is converging as capital city gains accelerate.
6. Rent values are also at record-highs, with the national rental index rising 0.6% in March.
7. Gross rental yields (3.53%) are now at their highest level since 2019.

You can check out our Home Loans hub page for more news and info on home loans and property.

That’s all for our interest rate and banking coverage today, folks! Join us tomorrow as we follow up on the Reserve Bank’s April cash rate decision and more.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) kept the cash rate at 4.10% at its April meeting. Over the past few months inflation has continued to dissipate, albeit slowly. In addition, the unemployment rate has remained relatively stable. However, the United States’ trade tariffs have raised global economic uncertainty and concern.

Mozo finance expert Peter Marshall expects the RBA to cut the cash rate again this year but says it will first ensure inflation is under control. He notes the bank remains cautious about low unemployment driving wage growth and inflation, as well as potential market reactions to US tariffs. 

“By its next meeting, the RBA should have a clearer picture,” he said.

Savings might not get the same headlines as home loans, but the amount of money Aussies regularly put away is obviously top of mind during these high cost times. 

Maybe even more pressing is the rate of interest we're able to earn on our savings accounts in 2025, especially as interest rates are now seemingly in a lowering phase.

Following last month’s RBA cash rate decision, many banks acted to adjust rates on savings accounts - mostly downward.

According to our Mozo database, most of the changes have been reductions of 25 basis points, but there have also been changes for more or less than that.

One online bank even cut its rates twice while another increased its bonus rate. There were indeed a variety of moves ahead of today's next RBA rate decision.

Here were a few of the more notable ones from recent weeks:

ANZ took 35bp off the ongoing bonus rate on its Progress Saver and 10bp off its base rate, along with 25bp off the base rate of its Online Saver. The bonus rate for its ANZ Plus account, ANZ Save, is down 25bp and its base rate is down 10bp.

Bendigo Bank cut the ongoing bonus on its Reward Saver by 45bp to 4.55% and reduced the base rate by 20bp to 0.10%.

Commonwealth Bank cut its GoalSaver’s ongoing bonus rate by 25bp and the base rate by 5bp. Both the introductory bonus and base rate on its NetBank Saver are down 20bp.

Defence Bank took the ongoing bonus rate on its Max eSaver down 20bp to 5.00%.

Heritage Bank cut the introductory rate on its Online Saver by 25bp and the account’s base rate by 35bp.

HSBC reduced both the ongoing bonus rate and the base rate on its Bonus Savings account by 25bp. The introductory and base rates on its Everyday Savings account are both down by 25bp too.

ING reduced the ongoing bonus rate on its Savings Maximiser by 10bp to 5.40% and took 50bp off the base rate, now 0.05%.

Macquarie Bank took the introductory and base rates on its Savings Account down 25bp.

NAB added 15bp to the introductory rate on its iSaver account and cut the ongoing bonus rate on its Reward Saver by 10bp.

These are just a few of the major moves. As we track the RBA's decision and fallout, be sure to stay on top of what's happening more widely in savings on our Savings Accounts hub page. 

Good morning and welcome back to our live coverage of interest rates and banking news!

As the Reserve Bank readies to make another cash rate call this afternoon, we thought it was worth a quick recap of how home loan rates have moved lately. 

Over the past few weeks most Australian lenders announced they would be reducing variable rates in line with the RBA’s 25 basis point rate cut in February, which now has the official rate at 4.10% p.a. 

However, closer examination by Mozo’s data experts shows that quite a few lenders were selective about which new borrower options received the full 25bp cut, and others cut some advertised rates a little further. 

Meanwhile, fixed rates headed firmly down with 39 lenders cutting some or all fixed options.

Here are some examples of noteworthy home loan cuts from our analysis in recent weeks:

Australian Unity cut rates for prime customers under its Kickstarter option by 34bp, now from at 5.69% (5.70% comparison rate*). 

Auswide Bank’s cuts ranged up to 30bp, but for some options were only 5 to 15bp. 

Bank of China reduced most rates by 20bp, now from 5.68% (5.86% comparison rate*). 

Bank of Queensland started with a reduction of 25bp across its loans, but then dropped some options by another 5 to 15bp. 

Bank of Sydney reduced most rates for owner occupiers with LVR’s above 80% by 35bp. 

Bankwest took 35bp off the headline rate for its Simple Home Loan, and 70bp off the best rate for its Complete Variable Home Loan. 

Community First Bank and Easy Street only took 20bp off its variable rates.

For a full list of interest rate cuts across the market, be sure to check our Interest Rate Tracker. And stay with us for more on how the RBA moves today.