Borrowers refinancing with lenders who aren't raising rates: HashChing survey

A quarter of brokers in the RBA survey conducted by online home loan marketplace HashChing have seen clients trying to refinance to banks which aren't raising their rates.

Siobhan Hayden, COO of online home loan marketplace HashChing, said it's no surprise.

“As expected, the Royal Commission into banking and recent variable rate hikes has severely battered consumer confidence and trust," she said.

"Borrowers are — and rightfully so— more skeptical of the big banks than ever, so it is no surprise that over a quarter of the brokers surveyed have already noticed clients trying to refinance with lenders who have not raised their rates." 

Almost a third of brokers surveyed have noticed an increase in lenders refinancing away from CBA, Westpac and ANZ and other lenders who have recently increase their variable rates.

“Despite the recent concerns around the cooling housing market, rising cost of living, stagnant wage growth, and interest rate hikes; over 60 per cent of brokers identified that the most common motivator for clients seeking to refinance was simply because they were financially savvy and wanted to shop around for the best deal," Hayden said.

"That’s compared to just 15 per cent that believe the main driver to refinance is the rising cost of living and 9 per cent that think it is rate increases. 

HashChing's RBA October survey found that almost 10 percent more brokers indicated that they expected an interest rate rise by Christmas.

Over 90 percent of brokers surveyed expect the cash rate to remain on hold in October. 

Nearly two thirds have noticed an increase in enquiries for fixed interest rate home loan products following the recent hike in variable rates.