Savings advice

jcharmers11

Hello,
I have been saving to buy my own property and currently have £16000 in a savings account. I add £500 per month and have done over 3 years (taking out some for a holiday and unforseen expenses).

My partner has an additional £11000 in the bank.

We had planned to buy our first property in London but have been a bit underwhelmed with what we can get and are now planning on moving to a cheaper part of the country. However, due to work commitments and a pregnancy, we are now staying put for 18 months - 3 years (depending on work) and needed to renew our tenancy. We need to be flexible as we are not sure just how soon it will be until we move and we may need to buy a house quickly (so I think a LISA won't work as we need to move quickly and the property is likely to be over £250000 which I believe is not a first time buyer option)

I have considered so many options and my head is swimming. What would you amazing people suggest we did with our money to make it work for us and give us the flexibility to leave London quickly and buy a property and make the money work for us.

greenglide

Each opens a cash LISA with the minimum payment and then see what is happening in February next year.

If you are then reasonably confident that you won't move before October next year transfer your HTB ISAs into the LISAs and top up to the £4,000 limit. Then add £4,000 next year.

Alexland

The LISA house price limit is 450k are you confusing it with the HTB ISA limit?

Buying and selling property is rarely quick with the process taking around 3 months from offer to completion with no real certainty of dates until contracts are exchanged towards the end. If the deal falls through for reasons outside your control the timeline starts again.

We are now on our 4th property in 10 years of moving up the ladder so have done 4 buy and 3 sell transactions. The quickest was 3 months (selling to a cash buyer) the slowest was 6 months.

Are you really likely to withdraw the money in the next 12 months? Even if you do there is no penalty to withdraw from a LISA for the next 6 months.