Challenger bank increases investor home loan rates

The move will affect new and existing investor borrowers and will put ME’s standard variable rate for investor borrowers at 5.28 per cent per annum.

The bank said the change was made to address increasing regulatory and compliance costs and to ensure the bank remains within investor lending growth limits.

"ME periodically reviews rates to ensure a well-balanced loan book and has recently seen demand rise after investor-rate increases by other banks," the bank said.

The bank said it will not increase the reference rate for any owner-occupier home loans and will maintain a standard variable rate for owner-occupiers at 5.03 per cent per annum.

The bank is offering one of the lowest owner-occupier home loan rates in the market with a rate of 3.89 per cent per annum for loans within a member package between $400,000-$700,000 and with a Loan to Value Ratio equal to or lower than 80 per cent.