Huge pile of mortgage money on short terms as borrowers wait for interest rate drops

Five days ago, 51.5% of the total mortgage pile was either floating or on a fixed rate term of 12 months or under, Reserve Bank data shows. This number has been increasing in the past year.

During October the amount of money on fixed rates dropped by $1.356 billion, which is the biggest decline in a single month since December 2011.

Lenders wrote $7.5 billion of new mortgages in October and 28% of borrowers opted to take floating rates, 20% fixed for six months and 42.% fixed for one year.

The amount of money on floating rates increased by $2.966 billion, which is the largest increase in a single month since June 2011, while the amount of money on fixed rates is the highest since March 2020.