Just found out we can't use our Help to Buy ISAs for house purchase. Should we switch over to LISAs?

Exodi

seradane said:

Exodi said:

seradane said:

Exodi said:

Sandwich said:

That's unfortunate. I think the cap is a bit low. It's hard to get a nice family home for under £250k in lots of parts of the country, not just London. 

Well the cap is £450k in London but I know what you mean - there is massive disparity between what 250k can buy up and down the country and in Kent (where I live), there weren't many 3 bed houses for sub 250k. I'd imagine up north you have a much larger selection of properties you can redeem the ISA against.

Again, first time buyers aren't supposed to be the ones purchasing three bed houses, so the ISA limit reflects that...

I think you've missed the point and are replying on emotion rather than fact - I'm sorry to break it to you, but you can still buy 3+ bed houses for £250k, even now. In fact a quick rightmove search shows me an 8 bed detached house I can buy for under 250k up north www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/87520012

This is exactly the point I was making: the scheme doesn't limit the type of property you can buy (though you may wish it did), only the value, which leads to great disparity up and down the country about what you can redeem the HTB bonus against. Add into the mix that houses were on average 30% cheaper when the scheme came out to now...

I'm not sure why my single line comment is being interpreted by you as an emotional response based on what I wish was the case?

You were complaining that a grant to help first home buyers would not stretch as far as a 3 bedroom family house in the South East, the most expensive part of the country. Is it really so hard to fathom that the HTB programs were deliberately not designed with someone in that position in mind?

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Wow you're a bundle of joy to communicate with.

Because it was an emotional response - despite what you keep suggesting, as myself and other posters have said to you - there are no rules or guidelines on what does and does not constitute a first time house. Your comment "Is it really so hard to fathom that the HTB programs were deliberately not designed with someone in that position in mind?" while amusingly condescending is also amusingly misguided considering I would have been eligbible under the LISA scheme - as others have also pointed out.

I'm not sure where you seemed to get that I was complaining about any of this? I explicitly stated it was my own fault and that I would have still bought the property, even if I'd realised before offering on it. I'm very happy with my purchase, unfortunately there only appears to be one person foaming at the mouth in anger in this thread...

To be honest I didn't read the rest of your post as you started going off on some ridiculous tangent.

Getting_greyer

If OP decides to stick with the HTB ISA and lose the government grant bit. I'd still recommend sticking a quid in  LISA just incase the sale falls through. By which time the 12 month period will have ticked off a bit.