ISA for house purchase advice 11 October 2021 at 12:20PM in ISAs & tax-free savings 3 replies 71 views

Alexander_J

Hi all,

I'm currently going through a divorce that's seeing me loose my (mortgaged) house and have to move into rented for a while. 
After all costs etc I'm going to be left with a lump sum of around £25,000 which I'd like to put to best use in around 2 or 3 years towards the purchase of another property. I'm looking for the best place to put that money that doesn't totally lock it away, just in case of unforeseen issues.

Obviously a LISA is out but is there anything else out there to help save for a property? 

Many thanks in advance. 

eskbanker

Nothing that I'm aware of that's specifically oriented to saving for a (non-first) property so you're really just left with standard savings products.  Fixed term ISAs must allow access (albeit they'll usually impose early withdrawal penalties) but rates are lower than the equivalent non-ISA fixed term savings (which won't generally allow early access), so you might be just as well sticking the money into premium bonds....

masonic

Some building societies have offered special accounts for house savers, but the perks are generally not significant, and I don't know if any are currently available.

jimjames

Any standard ISA is essentially irrelevant for house purchases as the long term tax benefits for cash ISAs are of no use if you are buying in the next few years and a S&S ISA is far too risky to use for saving a deposit to purchase in a year or two so it's better to just get the maximum rate you can regardless of the type of account