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[RateGap](/)every home loan rate lenders publish, compared

# What a comparison rate is, and how far it sits from the rate you pay

The figure beside every advertised rate, measured across every Australian lender
  that publishes one. I checked what it adds, and what it cannot say.

[Justin Wong](/about), first published 16 September 2026.
    The figures are read again every morning.

Rates checked **Tuesday 3 November at 7:01 am** (Sydney time) · [browse all the data](/data)

A comparison rate is the advertised rate plus most fees, worked out on a
      $150,000 loan over 25 years. Across **534 variable loans**
      anyone could take, read Tuesday 3 November, the comparison rate sits **0.06 points** above
      the advertised rate at the middle of the pack. On the $150,000 the rule
      prescribes, that is about $66 a year in fees. On a
      $500,000 loan, the same fees are 0.02 points.

That last sentence is the whole point. The fees are the same dollars whatever you borrow. On a
  bigger loan they are a smaller rate. So a comparison rate says how a loan's fees compare with
  another loan's, on one fixed loan size. It does not say what you will pay. This site never
  quotes one as your cost.

107 loans of the 534 have a comparison rate within 0.02 of the advertised rate. Those carry no ongoing fee worth naming.

## The order changes when the fees are counted

For a home you live in, paying it down, the five lowest advertised rates and the five lowest comparison rates
  are not the same five loans.

### By advertised rate

1. 5.79% Easy Street, STREET SMART VARIABLE HOME LOAN SPECIAL…
2. 5.85% CommFCU, Core Variable Home Loan - Owner-occupie…
3. 5.85% CommFCU, Go Basic Variable Home Loan - Owner-occ…
4. 5.89% RACQ Bank, Fair Dinkum Home Loan
5. 5.89% Mortgage House, Chameleon - Executive Home Loan 60

### By comparison rate

1. 5.80% Easy Street, STREET SMART VARIABLE HOME LOAN SPECIAL…
2. 5.89% RACQ Bank, Fair Dinkum Home Loan
3. 5.90% CommFCU, Core Variable Home Loan - Owner-occupie…
4. 5.90% CommFCU, Go Basic Variable Home Loan - Owner-occ…
5. 5.93% Mortgage House, Chameleon - Executive Home Loan 60

## Where the gap is widest

  | Lender | Loan | Rate | Comparison | Gap |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Mortgage House | New Car - Special - Secured - PAYG | 9.54% | 10.76% | **1.22** |
| Liberty Financial | Low deposit investment loan | 9.24% | 10.00% | **0.76** |
| Liberty Financial | Low deposit home loan | 8.89% | 9.64% | **0.75** |
| Mortgage House | Chameleon Commercial - Pure Commercial 80 | 8.54% | 9.25% | **0.71** |
| Mortgage House | Chameleon - Platinum Home Loan 80 (INV) | 9.29% | 9.99% | **0.70** |
| Mortgage House | Chameleon - Platinum Home Loan 80 (OO) | 8.69% | 9.39% | **0.70** |
| Mortgage House | Chameleon Commercial - Pure Commercial 50 | 7.69% | 8.29% | **0.60** |
| Mortgage House | Chameleon - Platinum Home Loan 60 (INV) | 9.09% | 9.63% | **0.54** |

A gap this wide is usually a yearly package fee, or a setup fee spread over 25
  years. Which one is in the lender's fee schedule, which the comparison rate folds into one number.

## What this site does instead

Where a lender publishes its ongoing fee, the comparison uses that fee, in dollars, on your
  balance. Where it does not, the comparison reads the fee back out of this gap, nets off any
  setup cost the lender does publish, and says so. [Read your own rate against
  the market](/), and the fee allowance is drawn as its own step.

  **How this is worked out, and what it does not tell you**

## How it is worked out

    1. Rates come from each lender's own feed under the Consumer Data Right, read each
    morning. Nobody types one in.
    2. A rate counts only if anyone could take it. Loans for particular groups, and lenders the
    capture cannot reach, are left out.
    3. Each loan counts once per profile, at its lowest advertised rate.
    4. Variable loans, paying the loan down, both purposes. An interest-only loan's
    comparison rate embeds the switch to paying it down, and a fixed loan's embeds the rate it
    rolls onto. Neither is fees, so neither is measured here.
    5. The gap is the comparison rate less the advertised rate, on each loan's lowest line.
    Points, not dollars: the dollars depend on the loan size, which is the point of the page.
    6. The comparison rate leaves some fees out by design: fees for events like a late payment or
    an early exit, and government charges. A loan with none of the fees it counts can still cost
    you one of those.

## What it does not tell you

    - **Advertised rates, not offers.** A lender can say no.
    - **New-customer prices.** What existing customers pay is published
    nowhere.
    - **The rate is not the cost.** Fees sit outside it.
    [What a comparison rate adds](/research/comparison-rates).

The data is [free to download](/data), so any figure here can
  be checked.

The other questions

        - [Are you paying more than you need to?](/)
              your rate against every lender publishing one- [How fast should you pay it off?](/paying-it-off)
              term, extra repayments, interest only- [Don't have a loan yet?](/buying)
              what to look at before you pick one- [What does each lender advertise?](/lenders)
              every lender that publishes rates, a page each- [What moved this week?](/market/changes-this-week)
              which lenders changed an advertised rate- [Where do these numbers come from?](/data)
              every published rate, and how fresh it is

**Free, and not advice.** It knows only what the lender publishes, not what you could negotiate. A licensed broker does
    this for a living. [Who made this](/about).
    [What this site collects](/privacy).

      **More from the data**

Building something with this? There is
      [an API](/api), and [the data is free](/data).

This morning: [the market](/market),
    [variable rates](/market/variable-rates),
    [fixed rates](/market/fixed-rates) and
    [what moved this week](/market/changes-this-week).

Found in the data: [what lenders charge above 80%](/research/lvr-bands),
    [the rate a fixed loan rolls onto](/research/revert-rates) and
    [what a comparison rate adds](/research/comparison-rates). Also
    [what an offset costs](/research/offset-accounts), and
    [what investors pay on top](/research/investor-premium).
