Front-Book Mortgage Discount
Front-Book Mortgage Discount (21211) measures how much lower the interest rate on a new variable-rate owner-occupier home loan is than the average rate existing borrowers pay: the average rate on outstanding owner-occupier variable loans less the average rate on new ones funded in the month, in percentage points. Higher readings mean a wider discount for new borrowers, which is how lenders compete for new business. It sits beside Interest Rates (21210), which reads the level of rates.
The rates are compiled by the Reserve Bank from lenders’ returns to APRA and begin in July 2019, so the baseline is 26 quarters (September 2019 to December 2025), below the platform’s minimum for a full baseline. The outstanding rate is an average over every existing loan, so the gap narrows when discounts on new loans shrink and also when existing borrowers are repriced closer to new-loan rates; these data cannot separate the two. The reading for a quarter is its final month.
Primary metric: Node Z-Score (Z21211)
Metric typology: single-series Z-score of a rate spread.
| Input | Source | Frequency | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Outstanding owner-occupier variable rate | Reserve Bank of Australia, Statistical Table F6 Housing Lending Rates, FLRHOOVA | Monthly | July 2019 to July 2026 |
| New owner-occupier variable rate | RBA Table F6, FLRHOFVA | Monthly | July 2019 to July 2026 |
| Context: investor rates, new and outstanding | RBA Table F6, FLRHIFVA and FLRHIOVA | Monthly | July 2019 to July 2026 |
Tier-1 central bank statistics, compiled by the Reserve Bank from lenders’ returns to APRA. No commercial data provider dependency exists within this node.
The chart shows the node’s reading in every quarter, measured against the September 2019 to December 2025 baseline.
The June quarter 2026 reading, −1.6296σ, is the lowest of the 28 ranked quarters (position 0.0) and sits below the normal range of −1.5219σ to +1.1697σ.
Show the data
| Quarter | Reading | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Q3 2019 | +0.1437σ | Ranked |
| Q4 2019 | +0.4604σ | Ranked |
| Q1 2020 | +0.3337σ | Ranked |
| Q2 2020 | +0.3337σ | Ranked |
| Q3 2020 | +0.2704σ | Ranked |
| Q4 2020 | +0.5870σ | Ranked |
| Q1 2021 | +0.3970σ | Ranked |
| Q2 2021 | +0.4604σ | Ranked |
| Q3 2021 | +0.4604σ | Ranked |
| Q4 2021 | +0.9037σ | Ranked |
| Q1 2022 | +1.0937σ | Ranked |
| Q2 2022 | +1.3470σ | Ranked |
| Q3 2022 | +1.5370σ | Ranked |
| Q4 2022 | +1.5370σ | Ranked |
| Q1 2023 | +1.0937σ | Ranked |
| Q2 2023 | +0.2704σ | Ranked |
| Q3 2023 | −0.4896σ | Ranked |
| Q4 2023 | −0.6796σ | Ranked |
| Q1 2024 | −0.9329σ | Ranked |
| Q2 2024 | −1.0596σ | Ranked |
| Q3 2024 | −1.1862σ | Ranked |
| Q4 2024 | −1.1229σ | Ranked |
| Q1 2025 | −1.2496σ | Ranked |
| Q2 2025 | −1.3762σ | Ranked |
| Q3 2025 | −1.5662σ | Ranked |
| Q4 2025 | −1.5662σ | Ranked |
| Q1 2026 | −1.5029σ | Ranked |
| Q2 2026 | −1.6296σ | Ranked |
| Month | New owner-occupier variable | Outstanding owner-occupier variable | Owner-occupier discount (points) | Investor discount (points) | Investor premium over owner-occupier, new loans (points) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2019 | 3.50% | 3.81% | 0.31 | 0.45 | 0.40 |
| October 2022 | 4.58% | 5.09% | 0.51 | 0.51 | 0.37 |
| June 2024 | 6.28% | 6.37% | 0.09 | 0.12 | 0.24 |
| June 2025 | 5.75% | 5.79% | 0.04 | 0.11 | 0.19 |
| June 2026 | 6.25% | 6.25% | 0.00 | 0.07 | 0.16 |
At −1.6296σ (Q2 2026), the discount for new owner-occupier variable borrowers has closed: in June 2026 new loans were funded at an average 6.25%, the same as the average on existing loans. Position. 0.0, ranked against 28 quarters since September 2019: the lowest on record.
The discount was 0.31 points in July 2019 and widened through 2021 and 2022 to 0.51 points in October 2022, as the cash rate began to rise. It narrowed through 2023 and has been below 0.10 points since March 2024. Investor loans show the same movement: their discount fell from 0.45 to 0.07 points, and the premium investors pay over owner-occupiers on new loans fell from 0.40 to 0.16 points.
The level of rates and the household finance nodes.
- Both inputs are Tier-1 central bank statistics (RBA), compiled from lenders’ returns to APRA
- The Z-score of −1.6296σ (Q2 2026) is derived directly from the inputs against the September 2019 to December 2025 baseline, not manually entered or estimated
- The position is an empirical percentile rank against 28 quarters
- The short baseline and the averaging of the outstanding rate are disclosed
- No commercial data provider dependency exists within this node
