House prices should continue to grow at a "slower" but steady rate in 2008, a new report claims.

A study from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) states that property transactions should remain above the one million mark, and that interest rates will probably fall three-quarters of one per cent.

These factors should combine to ensure that the market remains in fairly rude health.

Gross lending will probably decline - but should still exceed 2005 levels, it added.

"The housing and mortgage markets are facing their most challenging period since Labour came to power a decade ago," Michael Coogan, director general of the CML, commented.

"Luckily, the credit crunch occurred at a time when the UK economy was robust, but even so the effects on the financial sector are significant, and the mortgage market is not immune from them.

"We now expect a slower mortgage market next year, although by no means a stagnant one. Most borrowers will cope, but not everyone will escape unharmed from the effects of a slower market, so the government should make it a policy priority to overhaul the system of state support for home-owners, which has lagged pitifully behind the times."

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