Help to buy scheme

wolf19aa

I have an open Help to buy account but the value of the property to buy is higher than 250K and I cannot open a LISA as it needs to have 12 months before claiming any benefits? would be the cap of 250K outside London for help to buy scheme be reviewed for first time buyers in the current situation?  if not, who can request it?

eskbanker

The rules are the same as they've been since day one (in 2015) and I'm certainly not aware of any suggestion that the thresholds are likely to be altered - in fact the predicted drop in house prices helps buyers and therefore makes it less likely to happen than it otherwise might have been.

In terms of who can request it, you could ask your local MP I suppose, but I suspect (and hope, to be honest) that our parliamentarians have rather more important matters to attend to just now....

margaretx9

Agree with esbanker - almost no chance of the HTB isa threshold outside London.  
Given the lifetime ISA now exists can still be opened and has a £450k limit outside London - and the help to buy isa is closed to new investors - its highly unlikely now that the rules will be changed for the HTB ISA.
I agree its unfair - why the limit is £450k for a house in Dagenham but not in Surrey where  prices are higher is a mystery - but back in 2015 the Tories were trying to get a Tory Mayor elected in London post Boris so I expect the anomaly only arose because of that.  Sorry to be cynical - post 2017 when the lifetime isa came in they made it £450k across England - Sadiq Khan had become Mayor and the Tories were thus less fussed about special treatment for London!

So sadly you either wait and use a lifetime isa or you just go without - at least from today you will pay no stamp duty as an FTB up to £500k (was £300k before). So that is a help I suppose.