About the floating first-mortgage rate
This series is the Reserve Bank’s weighted average of the advertised, standard, floating first-mortgage rate that registered banks quote to new customers for housing. It is not a special, not a fixed-rate card, and not the average rate actually paid on the stock of existing loans. The current reading is 6.07% for 31 Jul 2026, from B3 series INR.MBI06.F.
The Reserve Bank collects these advertised rates from the banks that do the housing business in New Zealand and publishes a weighted average once a month. The survey is designed to show the headline floating price facing a new borrower who is not being offered a conditional discount. That is a narrower object than “what households pay”. Plenty of borrowers are on fixed terms, plenty have an existing loan that was priced years ago, and plenty receive a special that this series deliberately leaves out. If you want the advertised new-customer floating rate, this is the official version of that number.
The series is long. The first observation in the B3 file is 29 Feb 1964, when the printed rate was already being recorded as a housing-lending statistic. That longevity is the point of keeping B3 on a site like this: you can see the same conceptual series through the high-inflation 1980s, the disinflation that followed, the low-rate decade after the global financial crisis, the 2021–23 tightening, and the easing that came after. The highest value in the file is 20.50% on 30 Jun 1987. The lowest is 4.37% on 31 May 2021. The mean of 750 monthly observations is 9.35%; the median is 8.16%.
People look this rate up because it is the cleanest official answer to a simple question: what are banks advertising for a standard floating home loan to a new customer? Brokers, journalists and borrowers use it as a benchmark. It is also a useful companion to the OCR. When the policy rate moves, this series shows how much of that move has appeared in the advertised floating card, and how quickly. It will not tell you the rate on a two-year fix, and it will not tell you the rate a particular bank will actually write for a particular loan-to-value ratio.
How to read the chart: each point is a month-end survey, not a daily print. A jump of 20 or 30 basis points in a single month is large by recent standards and usually follows a cluster of OCR moves or a change in how banks are competing for new flow. Long gentle declines often mark an easing cycle that is being passed through with a lag. Use the range buttons to isolate a cycle; use Max when you want the whole post-1964 picture. The table lists every monthly observation, newest first.
This is still not a quote you can walk into a branch with. Banks change advertised rates between survey dates, and a real offer depends on the property, the borrower and the rest of the loan book. Treat the number as an official benchmark, then check a current advertised rate if you are actually borrowing.
Frequently asked questions
What does “new customer” mean here?
The Reserve Bank is measuring advertised standard floating rates offered to new borrowers, not the average rate on loans already on the books.
Why are specials excluded?
Conditional discounts (for example a lower rate that requires a high equity share) are left out so the series stays comparable over time.
How often is it updated?
Monthly. The B3 workbook used for this page was the current official file at build time; a new month appears after the Reserve Bank’s release.
Is this the rate I will pay?
Not necessarily. Your rate depends on the bank, the product, your equity and whether you take a special or a fixed term. This is an official average of advertised floating cards.
Source: RBNZ Retail interest rates (B3), series INR.MBI06.F. Local files: data/raw/hb3.xlsx. Values are republished without alteration.