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Help to Buy ISA property price
Purplepenguin88
Posts: 100 Forumite
Hey Everyone, just wanted to check something out, and that I'm not understanding things regarding the scheme rules for the Help to Buy ISA.
My bf and I are looking at buying our first property sometime in earlyish 2017. We're going to start looking for somewhere suitable after the festive period and we're getting all our ducks in a row. We're saving madly for a deposit and getting to the point where it'll be possible next year.
Now that we've started talking to people about this, everyone is asking "do you each have a help to buy ISA?" and when I say no, I get told I'm mad for throwing away the free money. Now I've looked into this several times, and I'm sure I'm simply not eligible. We're based in the south east, and want to buy a step up from the 2 bed flat we're currently renting - and so our property is realistically going to be 300-375k depending on exactly what we pick/where etc. And unfortunately since we're based in Hertfordshire we fall outside the London threshold of £450k. Even a lot of 2 bed properties around here are over the £250k threshold. My understanding is, since we're buying a property that costs over £250k, even though each of our half would be under this threshold, we wouldn't be eligible for the bonus - and therefore there's no "free money" for us. Is that correct?
Basically I'm not missing something am I, as I've now had to defend my lack of HTB ISA to so many different people that I'm starting to doubt myself!?
Many thanks in advance!
My bf and I are looking at buying our first property sometime in earlyish 2017. We're going to start looking for somewhere suitable after the festive period and we're getting all our ducks in a row. We're saving madly for a deposit and getting to the point where it'll be possible next year.
Now that we've started talking to people about this, everyone is asking "do you each have a help to buy ISA?" and when I say no, I get told I'm mad for throwing away the free money. Now I've looked into this several times, and I'm sure I'm simply not eligible. We're based in the south east, and want to buy a step up from the 2 bed flat we're currently renting - and so our property is realistically going to be 300-375k depending on exactly what we pick/where etc. And unfortunately since we're based in Hertfordshire we fall outside the London threshold of £450k. Even a lot of 2 bed properties around here are over the £250k threshold. My understanding is, since we're buying a property that costs over £250k, even though each of our half would be under this threshold, we wouldn't be eligible for the bonus - and therefore there's no "free money" for us. Is that correct?
Basically I'm not missing something am I, as I've now had to defend my lack of HTB ISA to so many different people that I'm starting to doubt myself!?
Many thanks in advance!
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Comments
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I think you're right, you wouldn't get the bonus.0
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You're right you wouldn't get the bonus but if you can wait until April you could transfer your Help to buy Isas to a lifetime ISA and get the bonus assuming the property is under £450k0
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Thank you for the confirmation!
MissT: I don't know anything about the lifetime ISA - I'll have to research them and see about taking out the HTB ISA's as a vessel for transferring them.
It's irritating that even when the property prices are sky high, you can't double the limit when there's 2 people putting in!
We couldn't afford a property over 400K so it'll definitely be less than that.0 -
My understanding is the lifetime isa does give bonus on properties up to 450k in all areas but the money has to be in the account for a year so couldn't buy before April 2018Trying to lose weight (13.5lb to go)0
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Purplepenguin88 wrote: »Thank you for the confirmation!
MissT: I don't know anything about the lifetime ISA - I'll have to research them and see about taking out the HTB ISA's as a vessel for transferring them.
It's irritating that even when the property prices are sky high, you can't double the limit when there's 2 people putting in!
We couldn't afford a property over 400K so it'll definitely be less than that.
I think the idea is, if you can afford a property of 500k (or 900k in London) you don't need the help
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