NZ mortgage repayment facts
Single facts about repaying a New Zealand home loan, each with its figure, date and source. Free to quote with a link.
Rates as at 10 November 2026
The Official Cash Rate is 2.75%. The Reserve Bank held it on 28 October 2026, by a 4 to 3 vote.
Source: The Spinoff, 29 October 2026
The last change in the OCR was a 0.25 percentage point rise from 2.50% to 2.75%, announced on 2 September 2026.
Source: interest.co.nz, 2 September 2026
The next OCR decision is reported for 9 December 2026; we could not confirm the date on the Reserve Bank’s own site.
Source: Reserve Bank event page, seen in search results, 10 November 2026
As at 10 November 2026, the average advertised 1-year fixed home loan rate across ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Westpac and Kiwibank is 5.06%, using each bank’s lowest 1-year rate.
Source: interest.co.nz home loan rates, read 10 November 2026
As at 10 November 2026, the average advertised floating home loan rate across the same five banks is 6.31%.
Source: interest.co.nz home loan rates, read 10 November 2026
New Zealand banks calculate home loan interest on the daily balance and charge it to the loan monthly.
Source: ASB, Shaping your loan payments, accessed 10 November 2026
Since 5 May 2024 BNZ has worked out interest on the actual number of days in each repayment period; principal and interest repayments stayed the same, but interest-only repayments now vary with the length of the month.
BNZ’s own home loan calculator works out monthly interest as if every month had the same number of days.
Paying half the monthly repayment every fortnight adds up to 13 monthly repayments a year; ANZ’s example is $1,200 a fortnight instead of $2,400 a month on $400,000 at 4.00%, saving around $23,000 and finishing two years earlier.
On a fixed rate, ANZ lets you increase regular repayments by up to $250 a week and make one lump sum a year of up to 5% of the current loan amount.
Source: ANZ, Fixed rate home loan, accessed 10 November 2026
On a fixed Standard home loan, BNZ allows up to an extra 5% of the loan balance each year without an early repayment charge.
Source: BNZ, Explaining early repayment charges, accessed 10 November 2026
On a fixed rate, Kiwibank allows extra repayments of up to 5% of the loan amount at the start of the fixed term in any year.
Source: Kiwibank, Fixed rate home loans, accessed 10 November 2026
A lender may charge only a reasonable estimate of its loss when a loan is repaid early, and a fee worked out with the regulations’ formula is presumed reasonable.
Source: Commerce Commission, 11 May 2010
In the credit regulations’ own example, a $5,000 loan at 12% over 24 months has repayments of $235.37, and repaying it early after 6 months and 5 days gives a safe-harbour fee of $58.57 when the lender’s current rate is 10%.
Source: Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Regulations 2004, reg 9 (version as at 1 July 2026)
From 1 July 2026 the Financial Markets Authority, not the Commerce Commission, is the regulator for the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act.
On a Kiwibank offset mortgage, each $1 in a linked offset account offsets $1 of the loan when interest is worked out.
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