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.

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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.