Many Aussies are making a big mistake with home loans

After the Reserve Bank of Australia slashed the cash rate to record lows earlier this month, it was the smaller, little-known outfits Athena, Reduce Home Loans, Homestar Finance, Homeloans.com.au and Pacific Mortgage Group that led the charge in passing on interest rate cuts to customers.

RateCity research director Sally Tindall said non-bank lenders had helped drive prices down across the entire home loan market, particularly in recent months as record numbers of mortgage holders moved to refinance, especially when it came to fixed rates.

“Right now, the lowest fixed rate loan on the market is just 1.88 per cent but that’s from HSBC, a big international bank, while Westpac isn’t far behind offering rates of 1.89 per cent if you’ve got a decent deposit,” Ms Tindall told NCA NewsWire.

Canstar figures show, however, that smaller lenders offer the most compelling variable rates.

Reduce Home Loans currently has the lowest at 1.77 per cent, but it is only available to customers with 40 per cent equity in their home or a 40 per cent deposit.

For people with 20 per cent equity or deposit, the lowest variable rate is 1.99 per cent. It is being offered by the same company, loans.com.au though its one-year introductory rate and Illawarra Credit Union through its two year introductory rate.

“Many people look at cracking low rates offered by non-bank lenders and think, ‘Well, that’s great, but I’ve never heard of them’,” Ms Tindall said.

“Just because you haven’t heard of them doesn’t necessarily mean they’re risky.

“Low-cost lenders such as Homestar Finance and Reduce Home Loans might not have the big marketing budgets of CBA and Westpac, but they’ve both been issuing home loans for over a decade each.

“A number of low-cost lenders are also backed by banks or created by former big bank executives looking to shake up the market.”

These include UBank (backed by National Australia Bank), Tic Toc (backed by Bendigo and Adelaide Bank), Aussie Home Loans (a subsidiary of Commonwealth Bank), Athena (created by former NAB executives) and soon-to-launch Nano (formed by ex-Westpac executives).

Canstar financial services group executive Steve Mickenbecker agreed a lot of people were nervous about little-known brands, but many had been in the market for a long time like loans.com.au, which began in 2011.

“Non-banks are not regulated by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority but are regulated by ASIC, so you can take some level of comfort in that,” he said.

Both Mr Mickenbecker and Ms Tindall said mortgage hunters should remember that in terms of risk, the lender was the one loaning the money, not the other way around…