Recent interest rate cuts and a slowdown in house price growth could be good news for first-time buyers in 2008, it has been suggested.

Last week, the Bank of England''s Monetary Policy Committee reduced the base rate to 5.25 per cent and some experts predict that further cuts are likely to be made later this year.

Michael Coogan, the director general of the Council of Mortgage Lenders, said that this would be helpful to buyers who still want mortgages but have found it difficult to secure a deal in the wake of recent economic uncertainty.

"Affordability has been stretched further in 2007 but the recent base rate cuts and the expectation of future cuts will ease debt servicing burdens in 2008," he said.

"For first-time buyers, the combination of subdued house price inflation and lower mortgage rates means affordability should ease slowly as the year progresses."

Last month, Nationwide revealed that house price inflation had dropped from 4.8 per cent to 4.2 per cent in January, with the average price of a home in the UK now standing at £180,473.