House prices may begin to increase by the end of the year, experts have suggested.
The UK's biggest mortgage lender has predicted that property prices will only fall by another six percent - and could even begin to rise by the end of 2009.
Lloyds, which owns 30 percent of the mortgage market after its takeover of HBOS, has suggested that recent positive reports in the property market could signify an improvement. These included Bank of England statistics which showed that mortgage approval rates are increasing along with a study by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors which indicated an increase in people looking to buy.
Lloyds had previously predicted a fall in house prices of 15 percent during 2009, but has now changed this estimate to ten percent - or 28 percent below the peak in August 2007.
Stephen Noakes from Lloyds said: "I think we will only see about ten percent to 12 percent falls this year. For the first time people are thinking that house prices will increase over the next 12 months."
This optimism was shared by Ray Boulger from broker John Charcol, who suggested that house prices will fall by a further eight percent and then will increase by three percent by the end of the year.
