Author bio: Richard Whitten is a money editor at Finder, and has been covering home loans, property and personal finance for the last 6 years. He has written for Yahoo Finance, Money Magazine and Homely, and has appeared on various radio shows nationwide.
Newcastle Permanent’s Read Deal Home Loan ended up in the top 3 for Best Owner Occupier Variable Home Loan category of the 2023 Finder Home Loans Awards.
But what does that mean for you?
We examined hundreds of loans to choose our winners in what is a very competitive category: most Australian borrowers are owner-occupiers. And most of them also opt for variable rate home loans.
To rank among the top loans means the Real Deal Home Loan has a low interest rate and low fees compared to most loans on the market. But there's a bit more to it than that.
Eligibility criteria
Loans that are eligible for this award category must be owner-occupier home loans with principal-and-interest repayments and variable interest rates. They also need to be available for borrowers with a standard 20% deposit size. This ensures that the loan is available to the average borrower.
Finder examines a lot of data to determine the winners. And while it's a complicated process we judge home loans in the Best Owner Occupier Variable Home Loan category based on how low the loan's interest rate is, with additional points based on how low the loan's fees are and whether the loan has an offset account.
The rate factor
For most borrowers the best home loan will have a lower interest rate than most other loans. The lower your rate, the less interest you pay. This matters more than ever in a time when interest rates have risen so quickly.
To find the loans with the most competitive interest rates we examine all the eligible loans in our database and examine their rates over a 12-month period. This gives us more confidence that a loan is genuinely competitive over time (sometimes lenders may drop rates briefly to entice customers, especially with variable rate loans).
Less fees please
But the rate alone is only part of what makes a home loan a winning product. Fees can really add up. And when some lenders charge quite high fees and others almost none, it's an important way to judge a loan.
We look at multiple loan fees, including application, settlement and ongoing fees. This makes sure we pick winners that have both low interest rates and as few fees as possible.
That’s why there is value in choosing an award-winning lender for your home loan. And taking all these factors into consideration, Newcastle Permanent’s Real Deal Home Loan is clearly a strong performer offering a variable interest rate that’s consistently competitive with low fees.