The Bank of England has warned that Britain will lurch into recession later this year, but how will that affect the housing market?

It will be the first UK recession since 2020 - at the height of the Covid crisis.

That actually boosted property prices as working from home encouraged both house movers and buyers in a race for space.

The housing market has been rampant ever since as people taking out a mortgage took advantage of low interest rates and a stamp duty holiday, but a recession could finally put the brakes on.

Latest figures from the Halifax bank, published on Friday, showed that house prices climbed 11.8% in the 12 months to July.

However, they slipped by 0.1% month-on-month in July - and that was before the Bank of England raised interest rates to 1.75% to tackle soaring inflation.

"While we shouldn't read too much into any single month, especially as the fall is only fractional, a slowdown in annual house price growth has been expected for some time," said Halifax managing director Russell Galley.

What a recession could do is tackle the main driver of rising house prices which is lack of supply.

But getting to the point where there are plenty of home available to buy at lower prices might not be pleasant.

"Repossessions may increase as people struggle to pay for the increased cost of living and mortgage payments and therefore more stock may find its way onto the market," said Karen Noye, mortgage expert at Quilter.

The biggest risk for hopeful homebuyers in a recession is losing their job.

Assuming work remains steady, then a recession could actually help some people climb onto the property ladder if it pushes property prices down, as some experts predict.

That would lead to smaller deposits being needed and lower total amounts borrowed.

But that must be balanced against rising mortgage rates.

Property website Rightmove has calculated that first-time homebuyers would see their monthly mortgage payments climb to an average of 40% of their gross salary after this week's rate rise.

That's a level not seen since 2012, it said.