The Reserve Bank of Australia confirmed a rise in the cash rate target to 4.85% on 3 November 2026, increasing the benchmark by 25 basis points.
This decision is the fifth rate increase so far in 2026 and takes the cash rate to its highest level in 18 years.
A mortgage calculator run against the new settings shows the likely impact on repayments: on a 25-year loan of $600,000 at an assumed rate of 6.50%, repayments would be about $94 higher each month.
Users can change the loan amount, term length and interest rate in the calculator to model different scenarios and see how their repayments would move under higher rates.
The example is based on the higher interest rate being applied monthly to the principal and does not take into account changes a borrower might make to their repayment schedule or any additional repayments.
Commercial banks set their own mortgage pricing, so how much of the RBA increase is passed through to customers will vary between lenders.
How quickly individual households feel the effect depends on their particular loan contract and their lender’s pricing decisions.
Borrowers who are negotiating new home loans or refinancing should factor the higher cash rate into affordability calculations, and existing borrowers may wish to check with their lender about likely changes to their repayments.
The calculator and the RBA’s new cash rate provide a starting point for households to estimate outcomes, but the precise change to monthly costs will depend on each loan’s terms and the response of individual banks.
