This page tracks the official cash rate and what rate changes mean for your home loan. We update it after each Reserve Bank decision, so if you like to get updates you can bookmark this page instead of hunting through old announcements.
Where the cash rate sits now
- Official cash rate: 4.85%
- Last decision: increased by 0.25% at the November 2026 meeting, announced 3 November 2026
- Next decision: 8 December 2026
The November 2026 decision
The Reserve Bank increased the cash rate by 0.25% to 4.85% on 3 November 2026. It is the fifth increase this year, it takes the cash rate up by 1.25% since January, and it is the highest the cash rate has been since late 2008.
This one was not unanimous. Six members voted for the increase and three voted to hold at 4.60%, the first split board we have seen in this cycle after a run of unanimous decisions. The Board also dropped the line it had been carrying about raising the cash rate further if needed.
The Board said inflation remains elevated and that recent data show it is now broadly based rather than confined to a few categories. It revised its inflation outlook higher, partly because of fuel and commodity prices affected by the Middle East conflict, and partly because domestic capacity pressures are tighter than it had thought. Inflation is now expected to stay elevated through much of 2027 and to reach the top of the 2% to 3% target band only in late 2027, around three quarters later than the Reserve Bank forecast in August.
At the same time the Board acknowledged the economy is slowing, housing prices have fallen significantly and unemployment has risen, and that unemployment is now expected to rise further than it forecast in August. It raised anyway, judging that further tightening was needed to bring inflation back to target.
What the economists are saying
The increase itself was expected. What economists are now reading is the 6 to 3 split and the dropped guidance, both of which point to a Board with less appetite for going again. The Statement on Monetary Policy also noted that the cash rate now sits slightly above the top of the range of estimates for the neutral rate, which is the level that neither stimulates nor restrains the economy. In other words, policy is now actively restrictive rather than just on its way there.
CBA expects the cash rate to stay at 4.85% from here, with cuts in August and November 2027. EY Oceania chief economist Cherelle Murphy expects the Reserve Bank to take a wait and see approach over summer so the five increases can work through. Going into the meeting, market pricing implied around one and a half more increases by the middle of 2027, and the split vote has taken some of the heat out of that.
Here is what this increase looks like on a $600,000 loan with 25 years left to run, going from a rate of 6.50% to 6.75%.
- Repayment before: $4,051 a month
- Repayment after: $4,145 a month
- Difference: $94 a month, or about $1,130 a year
Counting all five increases this year, that same loan is now costing about $461 a month more than it was in January, which is close to $5,500 a year. If your loan is a different size, the calculator below will do the sums on your own numbers.
Work out what it means for your loan
Put in your own numbers to see what a rate change does to your monthly repayment. This assumes principal and interest repayments and that your lender passes the change on in full, so treat it as a guide rather than a quote.
Our broker’s take
Chief executive and founder of mortgage broker Well Money, Scott Spencer, says the vote matters as much as the decision. “Five increases in a year is a lot, and this is the first time the board has not been united on one. Three of the nine thought it had done enough. That does not help your repayment this month, but it does suggest we are closer to the top than the bottom.”
He says the people he worries about are the ones who have absorbed each rise without doing the sums. “Each one on its own looks survivable. Five of them is about $460 a month on a typical loan, and that is the number that actually hurts. If you have been quietly covering it from savings, that is worth a conversation now rather than in six months.”
On what to do next: “Nothing happens to your rate on the day of the announcement. Your lender will write to you, usually with a few weeks of notice. Use that window. Find out what you will be paying, compare it to what your lender is offering new customers this week, and if the gap is ugly, do something about it.”
That is the part we do for a living. We are mortgage brokers, so we compare across a panel of bank and non-bank lenders, and we know how each one reads a file. Call us on 1300 899 724 or book a time to talk it through.
What a cash rate change means for your loan
A change to the official cash rate does not automatically change your home loan rate. Lenders set their own rates and decide separately whether to pass a movement on, in full, in part, or not at all. They also choose their own effective date, which is usually a few weeks after the announcement.
If you are on a fixed rate, nothing changes until your fixed period ends. If you are on a variable rate, your lender will write to you with any change and when it takes effect.
Will my repayments change automatically?
It depends on how your direct debit is set up.
- Direct debit set to the minimum repayment: this adjusts on its own.
- Direct debit set to a fixed amount you nominated: this keeps taking the same amount. If rates rose, you may need to increase it. If rates fell, you can leave it and pay your loan down faster.
- Paying manually: you need to adjust the amount yourself.
Your exact new repayment is confirmed once the change takes effect, not on the day of the announcement.
If you have a Well Money managed loan
Each funder confirms its own decision after a Reserve Bank announcement. You will get a letter setting out any change to your rate and the date it applies from, sent to your nominated postal or email address.
Rate decisions for existing customers can differ from the rates advertised to new customers. If you want to know where your loan sits against what is currently available, that is worth a conversation rather than a guess.
If rates are moving against you
A rising rate environment is the point at which the gap between what existing customers pay and what new customers are offered tends to widen. It is worth checking rather than assuming your rate is still competitive.
- Why rates differ for new and existing customers
- What it costs to refinance
- Why the rate on its own is not the whole picture
- What to do if you are struggling with repayments
Previous decisions
29 September 2026: increase of 0.25% to 4.60%. The fourth rise of the year and a unanimous decision. The Board said the upside risks it flagged in August were materialising, with the Middle East conflict broadening and global energy prices running well above its August forecasts. It took the cash rate to its highest level since late 2011. Read the full September 2026 update.
11 August 2026: hold at 4.35%. The second hold in a row, and unanimous. June quarter inflation came in softer than the Reserve Bank’s own forecast, with headline at 3.8% and trimmed mean at 3.6%, which took an August increase off the table. The Board kept saying inflation was too high and that it would move again if the risks it was watching came through, which is what happened six weeks later. Read the full August 2026 update.
16 June 2026: hold at 4.35%. The Board paused after three increases in a row, and the decision was unanimous. It said headline and underlying inflation were both still too high, and that while oil prices had eased, energy and most related commodity prices were still above where they sat before the conflict in the Middle East began. The statement added a line about raising the cash rate further if required, which was read at the time as a deliberate signal that the increases might not be finished. Read the full June 2026 update.
February, March and May 2026: three increases of 0.25% each. These took the cash rate from 3.60% to 4.35% in the space of four months. Inflation had picked up sharply through the second half of 2025, and the Board moved at three meetings in a row to pull it back.