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Jessica Darnbrough
Consumers are starting to become more comfortable with the idea of fixing their mortgage, St George's acting general manager intermediary distribution Darren Little has claimed.
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Speaking to The Adviser, Mr Little said the lender was seeing "stronger demand in the market for two and three year fixed rates".
"It’s a very competitive market right now and customers are very rate aware, this appears to be the space where they are wanting to lock in," he said.
In response to this increased demand, Mr Little said St George had decided to slash the interest on its fixed rate products for the second time in as many weeks.
Yesterday, the lender announced it would trim a further 15 basis points from its two year fixed rate products and 5 basis points from its three year fixed rate.
Effective from today, both St George and the Bank of Melbourne will boast a two year fixed rate of 6.59 per cent and a three year fixed rate of just 6.69 per cent.
Mr Little said the new fixed rate products not only highlighted the banks' committment to consumers, but the broker channel as well.
“We want to support our broker partners with one of the best offerings in the market. It’s important to us to show brokers that we’re listening to them, and to demonstrate to them that they can do better with us,” Mr Little said.
Citibank’s Matt Wood said fixed rates were currently the hot topic of every dinner conversation, with borrowers contemplating whether or not now is the best time to fix.
“Once consumers get more comfortable with what the cash rate is doing, there will be more conversations around whether or not they should fix. I think the RBA will keep rates on hold for the foreseeable future and I think consumers are starting to feel the same way,” he said.
