The UK's biggest mortgage lender, Halifax is predicting that house prices will fall in 2024 from between 2% to 4%.

In 2023, the average house price was £283,615, only 1% lower than 2022, despite the impact of higher interest rates on the property market.

Now Kim Kinnaird, the director of mortgages at Halifax, said: "House prices fell for six consecutive months between April and September, before rising again later in the year as prospects improved."

The Bank of England raised its base rate several times in 2023 but yesterday ( December 14) kept them unchanged at the current rate of 5.25%.

The head of the BoE did warn that rates may still rise next year as it tackles continued inflation* , however the markets have largely discounted this threat.

Many mortgage rates have fallen across the board with fixed rates now around five percent, much higher than the cheap levels of borrowing that consumers have been used to but still down on the floating rates of over 8 per cent many homeowners were facing.

And rents continue to rise. According to the Office for National Statistics, UK private rents lifted by a record 6.1% in the year to October.

*5.6% in October 2023. This is the lowest rate since January 2023 and is down from 6.5% in May, which was the highest rate since November 1991.