When do home loan repayments go up?

That depends on the lender. Each lender decides whether to pass on a rise, by how much and from when, and writes to its borrowers with the new rate and repayment. Fixed rate repayments do not change until the fixed term ends.

Do banks have to pass on the full rate rise?

No. Each lender sets its own rates. Most variable rates follow the cash rate closely, but lenders can and do move independently of it.

Will savings account and term deposit rates go up too?

They often do, but an account's rate only changes when its provider changes it, so it can lag the cash rate by weeks or not move at all.

The RBA lifts the cash rate to 4.85%, its fifth rise this…

The RBA lifts the cash rate to 4.85%, its fifth rise this year

The Reserve Bank has lifted the cash rate by 0.25 percentage points to 4.85%, the fifth rise since February and the highest the rate has been since December 2008. Here is what the Board said, what it could cost a typical variable rate borrower, and where deposit rates stand.

What the RBA decided

At its meeting on Tuesday 3 November 2026, the Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Board raised the cash rate target by 0.25 percentage points, from 4.60% to 4.85%, effective Wednesday 4 November. The decision was by majority: six members voted for the rise and three voted to leave the cash rate at 4.60%.

It is the fifth increase this year, after rises in February, March, May and September, and it leaves the cash rate 1.25 percentage points above where it started 2026. The last time the target was this high was December 2008.

Source: RBA.

Why the Board moved

In its statement, the Board said inflation "remains elevated" and is "broadly based", and that the inflation outlook "has also been revised materially higher". It pointed to higher fuel and other commodity prices linked to the conflict in the Middle East, and judged that domestic capacity pressures "have been a little tighter than earlier thought". It said there is "an increasing risk that higher inflation expectations will become embedded", and that "a further tightening in financial conditions is warranted to support the return of inflation to target."

On what comes next, the Board said it "will continue to do what it considers necessary to bring inflation sustainably back to target" and "will be attentive to the data and the evolving assessment of the outlook and risks to guide its decisions."

The RBA's Statement on Monetary Policy, released at the same time, expects headline inflation to peak at 4.5% in the December quarter and to stay above 3% until late 2027. It does not expect inflation to reach the middle of the 2 to 3% target range until around mid-2028. It forecasts the unemployment rate to rise to 5.1% by the end of 2028.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data released since the September meeting showed the Consumer Price Index up 4.3% in the year to September, trimmed mean inflation at 3.6% and unemployment at 4.7%. Our October review has the detail. CommBank economists changed their call on 28 October and had expected this rise.

What it means for home loan repayments

The cash rate does not set a home loan rate directly. Each lender decides whether to pass on a change, by how much and from when. At the time of publishing, none of the big four banks or Macquarie had announced a change to their variable rates. Fixed rate repayments do not change until the fixed term ends.

The average variable owner-occupier principal and interest rate we track was 6.88% on 3 November, before lenders had repriced for this decision. If the full 0.25 percentage points is passed on, that average would move to 7.13%. On a 30-year principal and interest loan, that looks like this:

Loan amount	Repayment at 6.88%	Repayment at 7.13%	Extra each month
$500,000	$3,286	$3,370	$84
$600,000	$3,944	$4,044	$100
$750,000	$4,929	$5,055	$126
$1,000,000	$6,573	$6,741	$168

The five rises add up. A borrower whose variable rate has gone up by the full 1.25 percentage points since January pays about $490 a month more on a $600,000 loan than at the start of the year, or roughly $5,900 a year.

These figures are estimates for illustration. They assume the whole balance is on the variable rate over a full 30-year term. The actual change depends on the balance, the remaining term and what the lender passes on. Our Home Loan Calculators run other scenarios, and rates by lender are on our home loan comparison.

What it means for savers

An account's rate only changes when its provider changes it, and deposit rates often move more slowly than loan rates. The average bonus rate across the savings accounts we track was 4.29% on 3 November, below the new 4.85% cash rate. The median 12-month term deposit rate was 5.30% on 3 November, above it. Rates are on our savings account comparison and term deposit comparison.

What comes next

The Board next decides on Tuesday 8 December 2026. The ABS releases its Lending Indicators for the September quarter on 11 November. The Rate Tracker follows average home loan, savings and term deposit rates day by day, and our guide to how the RBA decides explains how the cash rate works.