May 3 (Reuters) - Three out of Australia's "Big Four" banks said on Tuesday they would raise their home loan variable interest rates by 0.25% per annum, after the country's central bank hiked its cash rate to 0.35% and warned of more to come.

The Reserve Bank of Australia announced a surprise 25 basis point rate hike to 0.35%, as it pulls down the curtains on massive pandemic stimulus. A majority of analysts in a Reuters poll had expected a rise to only 0.25%.

The RBA action is likely to benefit banks at a time when the country's property market is showing some signs of cooling after a bumper 22% price surge in 2021 due to record low rates and a shift to working from home during the pandemic.

The country's biggest lender Commonwealth Bank of Australia said the variable rate change will be effective from May 20, while Australia and New Zealand Banking Group and Westpac Banking Corp set the dates as May 13 and May 17, respectively.

"While this change will impact customers in different ways, home loan customers are generally well placed to manage rising rates," said Maile Carnegie, ANZ group executive for Australia Retail.

Both ANZ and Westpac said that around 70% of their home loan customers are ahead of their repayments. (Reporting by Harish Sridharan in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)