Rising living costs are reportedly having more of an effect on mortgage repayments than the recent interest rate hike, according to local financial experts.

Willow Financial owner and mortgage broker Tanya Coxon has revealed locals were not getting as much bang for their buck as they used to.

“The price of everything has risen from groceries to fuel,” she said.

“Most people are focusing on the rising interest rates but growing living costs are going to have more of an impact on your home loan.

“People are only generally focused on the variable rate and the RBA rate so once that moves they think everything rises but what tends to happen is the fixed rates in the background start to increase before there is an RBA rise.”

Mrs Coxon said she was the busiest she had ever been despite working in finance for over 20 years.

“We are busy, but real estate agents are busier,” she said.

“Over the last week I have had 15-20 inquiries by individuals about fixing their rate, doing a review or locking in due to the rise in interest rates because people are worried about their repayments getting too high.

“When you break it down to how much you need to save weekly it brings it home to people. I have not seen much of an impact on investors or first home buyers, but it is still early days.

“If rates continue to rise to the 2% they are expected to by this time next year that will have a significant impact on most people.”

Mrs Coxon shared some of her advice for people worried about the rise.

“If you were to lock in now you are still going to be paying a premium because the rates have already risen and they have been rising over the last couple of months,” she said.

“It is a good idea to look at options and even splitting your loans because with fixed rates you generally cannot pay a lot extra.

“If you were to split you could have half variable and half fixed and that way you can still make your extra repayments off your variable and still have that flexibility.

“I always try to tell my clients if your minimum repayment is $200 a week try and pay $250 because that is going to set you up for the rest of your loan and that will then cover two to three interest rate rises.”