There's a lot of talk of Athena, UBank, Homestar and FreedomLend; however I believe only UBank are Government backed and they don't offer offset accounts. So they're all instantly crossed off the list.
Assuming a <= 80 LVR owner occupier loan, which lender presently offers the best rate assuming the following NON-NEGOTIABLES?:
- 100% Offset Account
- Covered by the Government Deposit Guarantee Scheme (https://www.guaranteescheme.gov.au/qa/deposits.html)
- History (particularly recent history) of passing on interest rate drops to existing customers. Yes, I know that's not a future guarantee.
Nice-to-haves:
- No on-going fees
- No exit fees (or whatever garbage they're calling them now i.e. "Discharge fees")
- Minimal application fees
I'm well aware that these three requirements mean I'm exceedingly unlikely to see the sorts of rates Homestar are offering, I'm specifically after the best deal with those non-negotiable constraints.
You can probably get 3% from one of the four major banks if you negotiate. Won't be as low as the 2.8% or so rates from the likes of Athena, but it'll have the security that you're looking for.
I wouldn't worry too much about rate drops, predicting interest rates is a fool's game but it's not like rates can actually drop much more.