Help to Buy Cap too low!

Gavin83

Hedgepigs said:

Gavin83 said:

Chris_English said:

BobT36 said:

Are the govt or whomever ever going to review this? 
£250k doesn't get you very far nowadays.

Myself and my gf spent all those years filling our Help to Buy ISA accounts, yet now that we're finally at £12k each (and scraped some additional deposit together) and ready to buy somewhere (at 34), everywhere suitable to start a family is much more expensive and most are way over the cap!

We'd rather not buy somewhere worse and then have to move again in a couple of years (and with a baby), if possible. We were hoping to use the extra 6k from our combined accounts to cover all the fees and everything. 

There are some very nice houses in nice towns available within the cap. Look at this one, for example;

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/111595688?utm_campaign=property-details&utm_content=buying&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_BUY

A four bedroom detached house in Morpeth, which is a lovely town.

Is it honestly the case that a four-bedroom house is no good for you?

Fine if you live in the North East, not so great if you live at the opposite end of the country.

Saying that I've no idea why people are still using Help to Buy and haven't switched to the Lifetime ISA. It's a better product in just about every conceivable way.

OP, there is another potential major issue for you that based on what you've said I figure will be a problem. You can't use the Help to Buy ISA for the exchange deposit so if you're buying a £250k house you'll need £25k on top of what you've got in your ISA, plus enough to cover fees + taxes. Do you have this kind of money? You can negotiate this down but it's at the discretion of the vendor and it's likely they won't reduce it considerably.

If the above is an issue I'd suggest switching to a Lifetime ISA and delaying your purchase for a year.

I don't think that is quite right - I believe you can use the actual money in the HTB ISA as exchange deposit, just not the bonus. The bonus gets transferred to your solicitor for completion.

Apologies, I stand corrected.

Chris_English

Gavin83 said:

Chris_English said:

BobT36 said:

Are the govt or whomever ever going to review this? 
£250k doesn't get you very far nowadays.

Myself and my gf spent all those years filling our Help to Buy ISA accounts, yet now that we're finally at £12k each (and scraped some additional deposit together) and ready to buy somewhere (at 34), everywhere suitable to start a family is much more expensive and most are way over the cap!

We'd rather not buy somewhere worse and then have to move again in a couple of years (and with a baby), if possible. We were hoping to use the extra 6k from our combined accounts to cover all the fees and everything. 

There are some very nice houses in nice towns available within the cap. Look at this one, for example;

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/111595688?utm_campaign=property-details&utm_content=buying&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_BUY

A four bedroom detached house in Morpeth, which is a lovely town.

Is it honestly the case that a four-bedroom house is no good for you?

Fine if you live in the North East, not so great if you live at the opposite end of the country.

No, you're not right there; here's another nice house at the other end of the country in Newton Abbott that's also within budget.

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/118922441?utm_campaign=property-details&utm_content=buying&utm_medium=sharing&utm_source=copytoclipboard#/&channel=RES_BUY

The important point, of course, is that people may have to move if they can't find the sort of house that they like at a price that they can afford where they currently live. Millions of people move for work, me included.

A_Lert

BobT36 said:

We'd rather not buy somewhere worse and then have to move again in a couple of years (and with a baby), if possible. We were hoping to use the extra 6k from our combined accounts to cover all the fees and everything. 

Consider whether the bonus makes it worth paying a second set of house move costs (solicitors, removal, stamp duty, etc).

You could also consider buying a house that's under the threshhold and has potential for an extension.

HampshireH

£250k can get you anything from a 1-4 bed house in South (if that's where you are) 

Obviously whether you would choose to buy them is another thing 

We have good condition four beds round this way. They are ex council houses on estates. But the houses are nicely done and they are big and spacious

That said in the same breath my 2 bed a mile away would be priced at over £300k based on rightmoves local ads

It's definitely about where you want as opposed to what you can get because you can get cheaper and bigger in many areas north and south 

Maybe suggest the area you are looking in?

RogerBareford

BobT36 said:

Some good info in this thread, thanks all. 
Arrgh that's a bit irritating with how the LISA works. I'd have thought they'd make transferring into it easier. Why the stupid rules about having it open a year and only putting 4k in per tax year, if you already have a H2Buy? Why not just let you transfer the full £12k amount in (as long as transferring it from a H2Buy). Grr. 

That's a lovely house linked, but we don't live in Morpeth, and I'm sure some even cheaper houses are available up Scotland or whatever, but it's not like we can just move anywhere! We're only 34 so have jobs to think about. 

We were going to keep our eyes open for any perfect places that pop up, but are most likely going to have to rent for another year, while we look. The only issue here is that we're not going to be able to buy for another full year, even if a great one pops up, due to this restriction. It sounds like it might be a good idea to drop 4k in while it's this side of the tax year, 4k next year, then buy just after April 2023 (where we'll drop another 4k in).

Delays things a lot more, we'll both be 35 by then. We were hoping we'd have a stable roof over our heads to start having a family.  I say this because our worst fears came true where we're being evicted from our current home, as the landlord wants the place for his daughter in law. This literal situation of potentially losing the rented roof over our heads was what put us off having a child for so long, and since we're now having to move anyway we were finally looking at buying, but nearly everywhere is so expensive!


If the LISA cap is £450k (much more reasonable) and H2Buy is still usable till 2030, why the heck couldn't they just increase the cap to match, or drop the transfer restrictions? How the heck does this all help young people but their first house and start a family? It's already late because we've been renting and saving for so long. Fortunately we do have enough for a decent deposit, it's just the house prices are so high!

If you had opened the LISA in 2017 when they were first introduced then you would have had the full £12K in there by now. Considering the LISA is a better product which allows you to save £4k a year instead of the £2.4k in a help to buy isa i don't know why you didn't do this anyway. You need to keep on the ball with these things to get the most out of them

grumiofoundation

RogerBareford said:

BobT36 said:

Some good info in this thread, thanks all. 
Arrgh that's a bit irritating with how the LISA works. I'd have thought they'd make transferring into it easier. Why the stupid rules about having it open a year and only putting 4k in per tax year, if you already have a H2Buy? Why not just let you transfer the full £12k amount in (as long as transferring it from a H2Buy). Grr. 

That's a lovely house linked, but we don't live in Morpeth, and I'm sure some even cheaper houses are available up Scotland or whatever, but it's not like we can just move anywhere! We're only 34 so have jobs to think about. 

We were going to keep our eyes open for any perfect places that pop up, but are most likely going to have to rent for another year, while we look. The only issue here is that we're not going to be able to buy for another full year, even if a great one pops up, due to this restriction. It sounds like it might be a good idea to drop 4k in while it's this side of the tax year, 4k next year, then buy just after April 2023 (where we'll drop another 4k in).

Delays things a lot more, we'll both be 35 by then. We were hoping we'd have a stable roof over our heads to start having a family.  I say this because our worst fears came true where we're being evicted from our current home, as the landlord wants the place for his daughter in law. This literal situation of potentially losing the rented roof over our heads was what put us off having a child for so long, and since we're now having to move anyway we were finally looking at buying, but nearly everywhere is so expensive!


If the LISA cap is £450k (much more reasonable) and H2Buy is still usable till 2030, why the heck couldn't they just increase the cap to match, or drop the transfer restrictions? How the heck does this all help young people but their first house and start a family? It's already late because we've been renting and saving for so long. Fortunately we do have enough for a decent deposit, it's just the house prices are so high!

If you had opened the LISA in 2017 when they were first introduced then you would have had the full £12K in there by now. Considering the LISA is a better product which allows you to save £4k a year instead of the £2.4k in a help to buy isa i don't know why you didn't do this anyway. You need to keep on the ball with these things to get the most out of them

Could actually have more because when LISA was first opened you were allowed to transfer the full balance from HTB ISA (was not limited to 4k).

[Deleted User]

I was thinking about switching from HTB to a LISA, but I see you have to be under 40 to open one. Seems arbitrary.

BobT36

grumiofoundation said:

RogerBareford said:

If you had opened the LISA in 2017 when they were first introduced then you would have had the full £12K in there by now. Considering the LISA is a better product which allows you to save £4k a year instead of the £2.4k in a help to buy isa i don't know why you didn't do this anyway. You need to keep on the ball with these things to get the most out of them

Could actually have more because when LISA was first opened you were allowed to transfer the full balance from HTB ISA (was not limited to 4k).

What? Arrrgh, why the heck did they change that then? Why stop people from doing that now? (as long as it's a HTB). 

I didn't look at the Lisa back then as I never expected struggling to get a decent family home for ~250k, and also we were still filling our Help to Buys..