At its regular fortnightly pricing committee meeting, Bendigo Bank decided to increase its residential investment variable interest rate by 0.25% p.a. to 6.01% p.a. Standard residential variable mortgage rates for owner-occupiers remain unchanged at 5.48% p.a. The change is effective as of 31 March 2017 for new and existing loans. A further decision was made to adjust the LVR cap on residential investor loans to 80% effective 27 March 2017.
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank managing director Mike Hirst said the adjustment reflects the requirement to meet regulators expectations in dampening demand for investor lending. Additionally, this change also reflects the bank’s view that recent ultra-competitive mortgage pricing needs to return to levels that better reflect the current market funding and capital costs.
“As has been well telegraphed to all Australian authorised deposit taking institutions, there is an expectation that as lenders, we must manage within the regulator’s 10 per cent growth speed limit for investor loans.
“When setting these rates we’ve tried to carefully balance the interests of our mortgage customers, those who earn money through deposits and those who invest in our Bank,” Hirst concluded.
Footnote: Customers on a residential investment variable interest rate with a $250,000 loan will see their repayments increase by $39.96 a month (principal and interest home loan over 30 years).
