More and more Australians are looking to make the switch when it comes to their mortgage lender. According to the CUA National Mortgage Survey: Expectations and Intentions, “Australians who have switched their home loans between banks have increased by more than 28% in the past 12 months.”
The main reason why Australians are shopping around is to find a lower interest rate, and lenders are starting to listen.
“Financial Institutions everywhere are responding to the increased number of switches through more competitive interest rates…” CUA General Manager – Sales & Service, Darrin Northey said.
In response to these attitudes, CUA have launched a new fully featured variable home loan product called Fresh Start, which “unlike other products promoting similar rates that revert to higher rates after limited periods of time, Fresh Start has an ongoing product offering.” He said. Fresh Start offers a 4.65% pa interest rate (4.66% pa comparison rate). Other new competitive features include the ability to link to an offset account and being able to make extra repayments without penalties.
The survey also found that 60% of respondents are concerned about the big four banks owning so many smaller banks, and a third of respondents would feel “extremely annoyed or misguided” if they found out that their mortgage lender was owned by one of the big four.
