Rates went back up. Is your home loan still competitive?
If you set and forgot your home loan during the 2025 rate cuts, here’s the uncomfortable news: the cash rate has done a full round trip, and your lender’s pricing may not have travelled the same road in both directions.
Quick recap of how we got here.
Through 2025, the RBA cut the cash rate three times — February, May and August — taking it from 4.35% down to 3.60%.
Then inflation came back. In February, March and May 2026 the RBA reversed all three cuts, and as at 10 August 2026 the cash rate is back at 4.35%. Most economists expect it to stay there for the rest of the year.
Why the round trip matters for your loan
When the cash rate moves, lenders decide how much of the move to pass on — and how quickly — separately for new and existing customers.
The result, after five rate changes in eighteen months: the average owner-occupier variable rate sits around 6.92%, while the sharpest advertised rates start around 5.69% (as at 10 August 2026).
That’s a gap of more than one percentage point between drifting and paying attention.
What the gap costs
On a $600,000 balance with 25 years to run, paying 6.92% instead of 5.99% costs about $348 a month — call it $4,176 a year.
You can check your own gap in two minutes with the refinance savings calculator.
Three ways to close it
Ask your current lender to reprice. A phone call (or a broker’s phone call) pointing at what new customers are offered sometimes produces a cut on the spot. No paperwork, no switching costs.
Refinance externally. More effort, but it re-opens the whole market — rate, fees and features. Our complete 2026 refinancing guide walks through the process and the costs.
Restructure. Sometimes the win isn’t the rate — it’s adding an offset account, splitting fixed and variable, or consolidating more expensive debts.
Start with the two-minute version
Our free home loan health check tells you whether your loan is worth a closer look — and if it is, we’ll do the looking.
Run your own numbers
See where you stand in minutes: try the repayments calculator, check your borrowing capacity, or get a free home loan health check.