Advice on Transferring Help to Buy ISA to a Lifetime ISA

MoneyMan01

Hi Everyone

I currently have the following:

Nearly £11,000 in a Help to Buy ISA paying 1% interest.

I'm about 6 months away from getting the maximum "bonus" on that account.

I notice the Lifetime ISA actually allows a house purchase of up to £450k whilst the HTB is only £250k (outside of London).

My plan is to buy a house at some point, not in the next year, no idea when yet as I am 27 living with parents but still need to save quite a bit more to get a property in my area, could take years.

I was thinking of moving my HTB ISA over to a Lifetime ISA so I can opt for getting a property up to £450k (I would be looking for a property on the outskirts of London, not in London).

Having looked into this I notice you can only pay in £4k a year into a Lifetime ISA, so if I am understanding it correctly, that means I can only transfer £4k of my HTB ISA this tax year, then £4k next tax year, and then the remaining £4k the tax year after that.

My question is, would that make any sense doing that? All I can see that would do is make me wait 3 years to be at the stage I am now. However in the current state, it means I can only purchase a house under £250k outside of London to get the bonus?

I could open a Lifetime ISA now and put £4k in (additional funds, not from the HTB), but would that make any sense either? It would still take me 3 years to get to the same situation I am in now right?

Can anyone offer advice on what I should do?