Lloyds predicts property prices will rise in 2024

LLOYDS Bank offered a boost to home owners and those trying to get on the property ladder today when it said prices will rise and the cost of new mortgages will fall this year.

Its prediction that the Bank of England will cut rates three times by the end of the year - starting in the summer is consistent with earlier forecasts.

But it has changed its mind on house prices which it now expects to rise 1.5% this year, much better than the 2.2% fall previously predicted.

Chief financial officer William Chalmers said there is a "more benign economic outlook", and the housing market had proved more resilient than expected.

The bank also says unemployment will stay low-good news since Lloyds is seen as a proxy for the performance of the wider UK economy.

It reported a 28% fall in first quarter profits to £1.6 billion.

There was an impairment charge of £57 million compared with loans of £448 billion.