In a sudden shift reshaping Australia’s competitive home lending market, National Australia Bank (NAB) — one of the country’s dominant big four banks — has rolled out its second fixed-rate home loan increase in just a fortnight, a move that has stripped it of its position as the cheapest provider of fixed home loans in the nation.
The latest adjustment, announced this Friday, comes exactly 14 days after NAB’s previous rate hike. The new round of increases adds 0.30 percentage points to every fixed-term home loan product the bank offers. Following the repricing, NAB’s lowest available fixed rate now sits at 6.34% for a one-year term. For borrowers seeking longer-term rate security, the cost climbs even higher, with a two-year fixed rate product reaching 6.39%.
This market shift has cleared a path for competitor Westpac to claim the title of the big four’s lowest fixed rate provider. Westpac currently offers a two-year fixed home loan with a rate of 6.14%, undercutting NAB’s new pricing by a notable margin.
NAB’s decision to raise rates twice in such a short window is far from an isolated move, it is part of a broader market response to shifting monetary conditions in Australia. Lenders across the sector have been adjusting pricing after the Reserve Bank of Australia’s March cash rate decision, as well as widespread expectations of further rate increases on the horizon.
All three of the other major banks — ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and NAB itself — have already forecast an additional 0.25 percentage point rate hike when the RBA meets next month. Forecasts are not uniform across the industry, however: Bendigo Bank Chief Economist David Robertson predicts the RBA will hold rates steady in May, but expects a third rate increase for 2026 to come in August. Robertson attributes this projected trajectory to ongoing geopolitical instability in the Middle East, which he says is creating a domino effect that keeps global and domestic inflation pressures elevated.