More mortgage products, less competition
Mozo recently compared 525 home loans from 88 financial providers for the Mozo Expert's Choice Awards to find the most competitive offerings on the market for both owner occupier and investor home loans. Instead, nearly half (44 per cent) have been dealt an interest rate rise despite no movement from the RBA since August 2016.Mozo said more than half the lenders in its database now offered a rate under 3.70 per cent, which it asserted was the new benchmark for an owner-occupier paying principal and interest."What we're seeing is that many mortgage holders consider the banks' offerings to be 'good enough' when really, they're offering their best deals for new customers while hiking rates for existing customers," says Kirsty Lamont, Mozo director.Lamont said that despite "paltry offerings" from bank lenders for many existing mortgage-holders, 42 per cent of Australians believe their home loan rate is competitive and only 18 per cent considered making the switch to a new lender."When it comes to customer satisfaction, the Big Four banks also ranked poorly, with 70 per cent of mortgage holders feeling dissatisfied about their current mortgage rate. Despite this, only 17 per cent consider making a switch. Smaller banks fared slightly better with nearly 60 per cent of respondents believing their home loan is competitive.