The RBA has raised rates yet again, but could the hikes soon be behind us?

Source: fizkes/Shutterstock.com.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) increased the official cash rate by 25 basis points to 2.85% at its November board meeting this week. This was the seventh cash rate hike this year, with hopes that Aussie borrowers may start to see some relief.

The RBA’s run of cash rate hikes has persisted this month, as our nation’s central bank continues in its efforts to get inflation under control. 2022 has seen the average variable rate mortgage get significantly more expensive in Australia.

In what may be potentially hopeful news for home loan borrowers, economists from several of Australia’s major banks have predicted that rate rises are likely to pause in the new year, possibly giving some relief to borrowers.

For now, though, you may be wondering how the RBA’s November rate hike will affect your home loan. We’ve crunched the numbers to find out how your repayments could look after today’s announcement, and we’ll also be monitoring how each of the big four banks responds to the latest cash rate call.

How could the November cash rate hike affect your mortgage?

In recent months, Aussie banks and lenders have largely passed on each cash rate hike to their home loan customers in full, and it’s likely this will happen again in November. With this in mind, Canstar has crunched the numbers to find out how much today’s rate rise could affect a hypothetical borrower’s monthly home loan repayments.

We considered how much more a hypothetical home loan borrower might be spending each month following the current rate rise, as well as the total amount monthly repayments might have increased since April of 2022, before the current round of cash rate hikes commenced, when the average variable home loan rate on Canstar’s database sat at 2.98%.

The below calculations show how much more a borrower with a $500,000, $750,000 and $1,000,000 home loan might expect to pay each month, assuming that their mortgage is on an average variable rate and that their lender has passed on each of this year’s cash rate hikes in full (and made no other rate changes).

How much more could a $500,000 home loan be since April?

25 percentage point rate rise: $79 more in monthly repayments, and $809 total since April.

How much more could a $750,000 home loan be since April?

25 percentage point rate rise: $118 more in monthly repayments, and $1,113 total since April.

How much more could a $1,000,000 home loan be since April?

25 percentage point rate rise: $158 more in monthly repayments, and $1,618 total since April.

Source: www.canstar.com.au – 28/10/2022. Monthly repayment calculations based on a loan repaid using principal & interest repayments over a total loan term of 30 years at a loan-to-value ratio (LVR) of 80%. Repayment calculations interest rate based on a starting rate of 5.48% (average owner occupier variable rate pre-May cash rate of 2.98% with May, June, July, August, September, and October cash rate increases applied). Repayments rounded to the nearest whole dollar.

How have the big four banks responded to the cash rate increase?

For the past several months, the big four banks have been relatively quick to pass on cash rate hikes in full to their customers after the RBA’s announcements, and all four had responded within days of the November cash rate hike, raising their own home loan variable rates.

NAB was the first of the big four to announce a home loan rate hike, on Tuesday afternoon, with CommBank following on Wednesday, and ANZ and Westpac soon after. All four raised their rates in line with the RBA’s call, so we crunched the numbers to see how this could affect the average home loan with each bank.

Readers, take note that home loan rate changes are often expressed in terms of ‘basis points’ or ‘percentage points’ – if you’d like to know more, you can read our explainer to find out about how basis points work.

Source: www.canstar.com.au. Last updated Thursday 3 November, 8.00am AEST. Current rates in the tables below are based on owner-occupier variable rates on Canstar’s database for a loan amount of $500,000, at 80% LVR with principal & interest repayments. Monthly repayment calculations based on a $500,000 loan repaid over a total of 30 years using principal & interest repayments. Lowest rates based on the lowest rates available for new customers from products that were also available before the May 2022 cash rate increase. Comparison rates calculated based on a loan amount of $150,000 and a loan term of 25 years. Read the Comparison Rate Warning.

ANZ home loan interest rate increases

ANZ announced a hike to home loan variable rates on Wednesday afternoon, saying that it will increase its standard home loan variable rate by 0.25% from November 11. The table shows ANZ’s current standard variable and discounted standard variable interest rate, as well as its lowest variable rate and the comparison rate for each, and how much the average repayment may increase per month with the current rate rise.

It also shows how much more per month the average borrower might be paying since 1 May 2022, before the current round of interest rate hikes began, with the coming interest rate hike taken into account.

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	Current rate	Increase announced	Effective from	Increase to monthly repayment	Change to monthly repayment since 1 May 2022
Standard variable	6.89% (comparison rate 6.89%)	0.25 basis points	11 November	$84	$873
Discounted standard variable	5.49% (comparison rate 5.50%)	0.25 basis points	11 November	$79	$810
Lowest variable rate	4.54% (comparison rate 4.55%)	0.25 basis points	11 November	$75	$699

CommBank home loan interest rate increases

CommBank was the second of the big four to announce a hike to home loan variable rates, announcing on Wednesday afternoon that it will increase its standard home loan variable rate by 0.25% from November 11. The table shows CommBank’s current standard variable and package variable interest rate, as well as its lowest variable rate and the comparison rate for each, and how much the average repayment may increase per month with the current rate rise.

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	Current rate	Increase announced	Effective from	Increase to monthly repayment	Change to monthly repayment since 1 May 2022
Standard variable	7.05% (comparison rate 7.19%)	0.25 basis points	11 November	$85	$880
Package variable	6.35% (comparison rate 6.73%)	0.25 basis points	11 November	$82	$849
Lowest variable rate	4.54% (comparison rate 4.55%)	0.25 basis points	11 November	$75	$699

NAB home loan interest rate increases

NAB was the first of the big four banks to announce a hike to home loan variable rates, announcing on Tuesday afternoon that it will increase its standard home loan variable rate by 0.25% from November 11. The table shows NAB’s current standard variable and package variable interest rate, as well as its lowest variable rate and the comparison rate for each, and how much the average repayment may increase per month with the current rate rise.

← Mobile/tablet users, scroll sideways to view full table →

	Current rate	Increase announced	Effective from	Increase to monthly repayment	Change to monthly repayment since 1 May 2022
Standard variable	7.02% (comparison rate 7.15%)	0.25 basis points	11 November	$84	$879
Package variable	6.17% (comparison rate 6.54%)	0.25 basis points	11 November	$81	$841
Lowest variable rate	4.49% (comparison rate 4.53%)	0.25 basis points	11 November	$75	$709

Westpac home loan interest rate increases

Westpac announced a hike to home loan variable rates on Wednesday afternoon, saying that it will increase its standard home loan variable rate by 0.25% from November 9. The table shows Westpac’s current standard variable and package variable interest rate, as well as its lowest variable rate and the comparison rate for each, and how much the average repayment may increase per month with the current rate rise.

← Mobile/tablet users, scroll sideways to view full table →

	Current rate	Increase announced	Effective from	Increase to monthly repayment	Change to monthly repayment since 1 May 2022
Standard variable	7.08% (comparison rate 7.21%)	0.25 basis points	9 November	$85	$881
Package variable	5.79% (comparison rate 6.05%)	0.25 basis points	9 November	$80	$824
Lowest variable rate	4.74% (comparison rate 4.57%)	0.25 basis points	9 November	$76	$785

Cover image source: fizkes/Shutterstock.com

This article was reviewed by our Editor-in-Chief Nina Tovey before it was updated, as part of our fact-checking process.

Alasdair Duncan

Deputy Finance Editor

Alasdair Duncan is Canstar's Deputy Finance Editor, specialising in home loans, property and lifestyle topics. He has written more than 500 articles for Canstar and his work is widely referenced by other publishers and media outlets, including Yahoo Finance, The New Daily, The Motley Fool and Sky News. He has featured as a guest author for property website homely.com.au.

In his more than 15 years working in the media, Alasdair has written for a broad range of publications. Before joining Canstar, he was a News Editor at Pedestrian.TV, part of Australia’s leading youth media group. His work has also appeared on ABC News, Junkee, Rolling Stone, Kotaku, the Sydney Star Observer and The Brag. He has a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Journalism from the University of Queensland.

When he is not writing about finance for Canstar, Alasdair can probably be found at the beach with his two dogs or listening to podcasts about pop music. You can follow Alasdair on LinkedIn.