Four lenders cut variable home loan rates in the past week, in a sign that competition is providing a counterweight to the rising cash rate.

Canstar reported that Citi, ING and bcu cut variable rates for owner occupiers and investors by as much as 50 basis points, while BankVic made changes to its product range that resulted in a lower variable rate offer.

Citi, whose retail banking business is now owned by NAB, cut variable rates on four owner occupier loans by 30 bps and its basic variable rate by 10 bps. It cut a number of investor variable loan rates by 50 bps.

ING cut its owner occupier and investor variable rates by 10 bps. bcu cut rates on two investor variable loans by 50 bps.

BankVic replaced two existing variable rate loans with a new Variable Rate Loan. The 3.95 per cent rate on its owner occupier variable loan is 71 bps lower than its previous offer, the 4.45 per cent rate on its investor variable loan is 34 bps lower than the previous offer and the 4.35 per cent rate on its investor variable interest only loan is 69 per cent lower than its previous offer.

Most of the new rates for these lenders, ranging between 4.1 and 4.7 per cent, are below the average rates of 4.89 per cent for owner occupiers and 5.25 per cent for investors in the Canstar database.

The lowest variable rate for owner occupiers is 3.14 per cent and the lowest for investors is 3.74 per cent.