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: 4.35%
- Last decision: held at the August 2026 meeting, announced 11 August 2026
- Next decision: 29 September 2026
The August 2026 decision
The Reserve Bank left the cash rate at 4.35% on 11 August 2026, and the decision was unanimous. It is the second hold in a row, after three increases in February, March and May took the rate from 3.60% to 4.35%.
The Board’s view is that inflation is still too high. June quarter headline inflation eased to 3.8% and trimmed mean inflation held at 3.6%, which came in under the Reserve Bank’s own forecast. That softer reading is the main reason a hold was widely expected. The Board does not expect inflation back near the middle of its 2% to 3% target band until late 2027, and it has said it will raise the cash rate again if the risks it is watching come through.
The Board also noted that momentum in the housing market has shifted, with prices falling in some capital cities and new home loans down noticeably. Financial markets are currently pricing roughly a 50% chance of one more increase before the end of the year, so this is a pause rather than a turning point.
What the economists are saying
The hold was as widely expected as these decisions get. Every one of the 37 economists in a Reuters poll taken before the meeting tipped no change, and most of them expect the cash rate to stay where it is for the rest of the year. ANZ, CBA, NAB and Westpac now all take the view that the cash rate has already peaked.
Westpac senior economist Matthew Hassan has said rates should stay on hold into next year unless inflation picks up again, on the basis that rate rises take time to work through the economy and a fresh increase gets harder to justify the closer we get to the end of the year. CBA also expects a hold through the rest of 2026, and points to an escalation in the Middle East conflict, and what that would do to oil prices, as the main thing that could change its view.
Not everyone is convinced the increases are finished. In Finder’s survey of economists and property experts, 44% still expect another rise before the end of the year, and market pricing sits at roughly a 50% chance. Governor Michele Bullock was careful at her press conference to say the Board remains concerned about inflation and expects a period of subdued growth will be needed to bring it down. Her language kept the door open rather than shutting it.
Our broker’s take
Chief executive and founder of mortgage broker Well Money, Scott Spencer, says the decision is worth keeping in perspective. “A hold is good news, but it is not the same as rates coming down. If you took your loan out in the last couple of years you can be paying a lot more than you were. A hold on rates only means the reapayment increases stop getting worse for a while.”
His advice is to treat it as a good week for a check up and two things are worth spending a few minutes on. The first is finding out the rate you are actually on, then comparing it to what your own lender is advertising to new customers right now. “After three increases in a year, the gap between existing customer rates and new customer rates has widened at a lot of lenders. Loyalty is not what gets you a better rate.”
The second is working out the new repayment on any fixed rate ending in the next twelve months, rather than finding out when the first one comes out of your account. Scott also points out that lenders do not all move together. “Several have repriced outside the cash rate cycle this year, in both directions. The Reserve Bank sitting still does not mean nothing is happening to your rate. Competition for home loans is more aggressive than we’ve seen in years and there’s lots of great options out there.”
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
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.