Macquarie's variable rate cut last Friday was small, but it wasn't accidental. As Australian Broker reported, Canstar's Sally Tindall called the 0.05% trim "deliberately targeted", enough to edge past CBA, not enough to move the whole market.
The backdrop matters more than the single move. Canstar's database shows 30 lenders have cut at least one new-customer variable rate since the start of June, and 44 lenders now advertise at least one variable rate under 6%, up from 38. The lowest advertised variable rate across any LVR is 5.69% (LCU and Pacific Mortgage Group). Three rates sit below 5.75%. The average owner-occupier principal-and-interest variable is 6.65%.
What this changes for a borrower
The headline is competition, not direction. These are out-of-cycle cuts, lenders repricing to win business ahead of any RBA move, and the spread is widening between the advertised leaders and the market average. That 6.65% average against a 5.69% floor is close to a full point of gap, and gaps like that are where refinancing conversations start.
But two cautions sit in the same article. First, all four major bank economic teams expect the RBA to hold next Tuesday, so the borrowing cost floor isn't obviously about to drop. Second, Tindall's own warning: sticky core inflation and the RBA's line that further hikes remain possible mean nobody should assume rates only head down. Falling property prices haven't slowed lending either, the mortgage book grew 0.7% in June, with CBA adding a record $5 billion.
For commercial and business borrowers, the read-across is indirect: this is residential mortgage pricing. But it signals appetite. Lenders competing hard on the front book tend to sharpen elsewhere too. Watch the spread, not the headline cut.
Advertised rates, not offers. General information only.