"Yes, it's risen, generally just to normal levels, so the levels that were prevailing before the COVID period," she said.There is a notable difference between the Australian and New Zealand mortgage markets: Across the Tasman, the number of borrowers on fixed rates is much higher.
"Therefore, some of these borrowers and other borrowers with high debt-to-income levels may begin to struggle to meet their repayment obligations as they reprice onto the higher rates." The Reserve Bank of New Zealand does not meet every month like the RBA, instead making decisions about the country's official cash rate seven times a year.
"That plus the high floating proportion of debt means the RBA gets a lot of traction very fast and I think that goes a long way to explaining why the RBNZ has been feeling much more urgency to get rates up fast."New Zealand's central bank lifted the official cash rate again in April. "There was some speculation certainly in the financial markets, certainly from some economic forecasters, that the reserve bank could or should be done with interest rate hikes, given that headline inflation came in softer than expected in the March quarter.