TMB cuts mortgage rates by up to 50bps

Charbel Kadib 08:00 AM, 6 Mar 2019 3 minute read

The mutual bank has announced interest rate reductions of up to 50 basis points on its owner-occupied and investor home loan offerings.

Teachers Mutual Bank (TMB), and its subsidiary brands, UniBank, Firefighters Mutual Bank, and Health Professionals Bank, have repriced their fixed rate home loan offerings, effective for new business as of today (6 March).

The mortgage rate changes are as follows:

A reduction of 10 basis points on TMB’s 3-year owner-occupied principal and interest fixed rate to 3.88 per cent
A reduction of 37 basis points on TMB’s 4-year owner-occupied principal and interest fixed rate to 3.99 per cent
A reduction of 50 basis points on TMB’s 5-year owner-occupied principal and interest fixed rate to 3.99 per cent
A reduction of 21 basis points on TMB’s 3-year investor principal and interest fixed rate to 3.99 per cent
A reduction of 20 basis points on TMB’s 4-year investor principal and interest fixed rate to 4.38 per cent
A reduction of 20 basis points on TMB’s 5-year investor principal and interest fixed rate to 4.41 per cent

“These changes demonstrate the consistently competitive rates we offer to those in the education, emergency services, healthcare and university sectors who make up our membership,” TMB’s head of third-party distribution Mark Middleton said.

“When combined with our 100 per cent mortgage offset facility, we think these rates will be very popular with our key worker niche market.”

The mutual bank has dropped mortgage rates despite several out-of-cycle interest rate hikes from lenders throughout 2018 and since the turn of the year.

MyState, NAB and its subsidiary UBank, Macquarie, the Bank of Queensland, Virgin Money, and ING have all announced rate increases since the start of the year, off the back of funding costs pressures.

Lenders have repriced their mortgage books despite monetary policy inertia from the Reserve Bank of Australia, which has again chosen to hold the official cash rate at 1.5 per cent, following its monthly board meeting.

However, many analysts now expect the central bank to cut the official cash rate this year in response to weakening housing market conditions and softening demand for credit.

Of the 17 panellists asked to predict future rate moves, 53 per cent said they expect the official cash rate to fall to 1 per cent by the end of the year, following two rate cuts from the RBA.

[Related: RBA announces cash rate decision]