Higher interest rates are set to provoke a crunch in Britain’s property market next year with the weakest growth in prices for 13 years, the Council of Mortgage Lenders predicted yesterday. The Times. Daily Telegraph

Michael Coogan, director-general of the council, said house prices would grow at half their current rate by the end of the year and would rise by only 2% to 3% in 2008.

Data released yesterday by the Department of Communities and Local Government showed that house-price inflation stood at 10.9% in May.