Who passed on the rate rise, and when: BOQ first, big four on 9 October

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Kooky

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Every lender that has announced a response to the Reserve Bank's rate increase of Tuesday 29 September has passed it on in full, according to trackers kept by the comparison sites Savings.com.au, updated on Monday 5 October, and Finder, updated on Tuesday 6 October. The cash rate rose by 0.25 percentage points to 4.60 per cent, and variable home loan rates are rising by the same amount. What differs between lenders is the date.

For Queensland borrowers the spread is about twelve days. Bank of Queensland and its ME Bank and Virgin Money brands moved first, with the higher rate applying from Saturday 3 October on Finder's listing. The four major banks follow on Friday 9 October, as the trade title Australian Broker reported on 30 September. People First Bank and its Heritage brand, and Macquarie Bank, come later still.

Reserve Bank decision of 29 September 2026; Australian Broker, 30 September 2026. The repayment figure is an illustration for a 30-year principal-and-interest loan moving from 6.09% to 6.34%.

The dates, lender by lender

The table brings together the lenders most Queenslanders bank with, using the dates in the two trackers and in Australian Broker's reports of 30 September. Each is increasing variable home loan rates by 0.25 percentage points.

Two entries need a note. For Suncorp Bank, the sources disagree: Savings.com.au lists the increase as applying from 9 October, the same day as its owner ANZ, while Finder's tracker of 6 October had no announcement recorded for the bank. And Finder lists two Queensland customer-owned lenders, Queensland Country Bank and QBANK, among roughly 40 lenders that had not yet announced a move. Customers of those three should rely on what the lender itself tells them.

Savings.com.au counts more than 40 further lenders with effective dates between 7 and 15 October. The latest date on Finder's list is 1 November, for a small mutual outside Queensland.

The end of rates below 6 per cent at the majors

Australian Broker's report of the major banks' announcements describes the increase as ending variable rates below 6 per cent among the big four. Westpac's lowest variable rate rises from 5.99 per cent to 6.24 per cent. Commonwealth Bank's lowest becomes 6.34 per cent, up from the 6.09 per cent reported in mid-September.

The majors' fixed rates were already above those levels. MPA reported on 17 September that NAB and ANZ had raised fixed rates and that the lowest fixed rate at any of the four was 6.34 per cent. With this increase, variable and fixed rates at the largest banks sit in roughly the same range.

Smaller lenders remain below that. Savings.com.au's page was advertising home loans from 5.70 per cent in the days after the decision, and customer-owned lenders had been offering fixed rates under 6 per cent in September. The gap between the cheapest loan in the market and a major bank's standard offer is now more than half a percentage point.

What it adds to a repayment

Finder's estimate is that the increase adds about $120 a month to repayments on the average Australian home loan, which it puts at $736,259.

Queensland loans are a little larger. The Australian Bureau of Statistics put the average new owner-occupier loan in the state at $751,000 in June. On a principal-and-interest loan of that size over 30 years, a rise from 6.09 per cent to 6.34 per cent lifts the monthly repayment from $4,546 to $4,668, an increase of $122. This is an illustration using the standard loan formula, and the rates are those of one major bank's lowest variable product, not an average.

The cumulative figure is the one households feel. This is the fourth increase of 2026, and together they have added one full percentage point to the cash rate. On the same illustrative loan, the repayment at 5.34 per cent would have been $4,189. At 6.34 per cent it is $4,668, which is $479 a month more than at the start of the year, or about $5,750 over twelve months.

Sally Tindall, the data insights director at Canstar, told Australian Broker the increase would be "brutal for some borrowers" carrying very large debts.

Why some lenders move sooner than others

A lender cannot change a variable rate on the afternoon of a decision. Systems have to be updated, and every affected borrower has to be notified. Most lenders choose a date one to two weeks out.

The spread of dates has a small money value for each borrower. On a $751,000 loan, a quarter of a percentage point is worth about $5 a day in interest, so the six days between Bank of Queensland's date and the major banks' date amount to about $31, and the twelve days between Bank of Queensland's and Macquarie's to about $62. It is not a reason to choose a lender, and a borrower would not notice it in a month. Multiplied across a bank's whole loan book, it is real revenue, which is why the dates are watched.

The same question applies in reverse to savers. Australian Broker reported that Teachers Mutual Bank lifted variable savings rates by 0.25 points from 1 October, a week before its home loan rates rise on 8 October, and that Macquarie will lift its savings rate for balances up to $250,000 from 5.00 per cent to 5.25 per cent on 15 October, the same day as its home loans. The trackers do not show deposit rate decisions for most lenders, and a customer with savings is entitled to ask whether the increase has been passed on there too.

The Queensland lenders

Three points about the state's own institutions stand out from the list.

Bank of Queensland moved earliest of the larger lenders. The bank has been shrinking its home loan book: an analysis of official banking data by Australian Broker in May put it 13.4 per cent below its February 2023 peak.

The two large customer-owned banks chose different dates. Great Southern Bank's rate rises on 7 October and People First Bank's on 13 October, six days apart. The choice of date is each bank's own.

Suncorp Bank is in the first rate cycle since it told customers on 7 September that their banking will move to ANZ by June 2027. If Savings.com.au's listing is right, its date matches ANZ's exactly. How closely the two brands' rates track each other between now and the move is something Suncorp Bank borrowers will want to watch.

What a borrower can do with a week's notice

Nothing in the announcements requires a borrower to act. The new rate applies automatically. There are still a few useful things to do in the days before it does, set out here as general information, not advice.

• Read the notice. It states the new rate and the new minimum repayment. If the repayment is paid by a fixed transfer from another bank, the amount may need to be changed by hand.
• Check the rate against the market. A borrower paying well above 6.34 per cent at a major bank, or well above the lowest rates on offer from smaller lenders, is paying more than new customers. Lenders often reduce a rate when an existing customer asks, and applications are down this year, which gives them reason to keep the customers they have.
• Say so early if the new repayment cannot be met. Every lender must consider a hardship request and respond within 21 days. Macquarie's head of personal banking, Ben Perham, told Australian Broker that financial assistance may be available to customers who need it, and Commonwealth Bank's retail banking executive Angus Sullivan noted that customers are adjusting their budgets in different ways.

The Reserve Bank's Financial Stability Review, published on 1 October, estimates that about 2 per cent of owner-occupiers with variable-rate loans are already spending more on essentials and repayments than they earn, and that the median borrower holds more than a year of repayments in offset and redraw. Most households can absorb this increase. The review's figures were prepared before it.

Whether there is another one coming

The major banks' economists are divided on what follows. Australian Broker reported on 30 September that Westpac and ANZ expect a further increase in November, while Commonwealth Bank and NAB expect the cash rate to stay where it is.

The case for another rise rests on inflation. Annual headline inflation was 4 per cent in August and the trimmed mean measure was unchanged at 3.6 per cent, both above the Reserve Bank's target band. The case against rests on what the increases are already doing: national home values have been falling since March, Brisbane's fell faster than any other capital's in September on Cotality's index, and new lending has slowed.

The Monetary Policy Board meets next in early November. The September quarter inflation figures are due in late October and will be the main new information before that meeting.

Kooky, from Shaka

Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.

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