Shift to fixed rates continues

In April 2012, there was $109.8 billion of lending on floating rates. Two years later, that had fallen to $67.4 billion.

That’s down from $70 billion in March.

Fixed lending for April totalled $125.6 billion, still most of that lending, or $64.3 billion, was fixed for rates of  less than one year. Another $37.6 billion was fixed for one to two years. Just $2.8 billion is fixed for rates between four and five years.

The value of loans on the shorters terms was largely unchanged between March and April, though, while the number fixed between one and two years increased by $1 billion and the value of loans on two to three year terms increased by more than $1.5 billion.

The data shows that new customers are paying an average 6.05% for floating, 5.59% for six months, 5.76% for one year, 6.25% for two years and 6.61% for three years. Five-year rates are still more than 7%.

By number, there is now almost an even split between floating and fixed, with 727,521 loans floating and 725,295 fixed.

Total household claims, which includes home loans and consumer borrowing, rose by a seasonally-adjusted 0.3%,  the slowest rate of growth since September 2012.