How do I protect the value of £200k cash in 2022?

theoretica

I understand that getting a BTL mortgage can be challenging if you do not own another property, so perhaps options to consider are buying something to live in now - with the expectation of selling up and moving when you can.  Or looking harder at moving somewhere now where you could afford to buy and live (would you be open to cheaper parts of the country than the South Coast?)

Apodemus

Frequentlyhere said:

Do you have a SIPP or company pension? As you're close to the age when you can take it, it seems to me It'd be best to put some money in there. You can put up to a limit of £40k (providing you've earned that amount as you've said) and if its a SIPP of some sort  you could potentially put in £32k this tax year and next and benefit from a 25% uplift on all of it through tax relief.

Probably the most important factor of what you do with the money though is how long 'eventually' is. If you mean when you're 65, then I personally would consider putting most of the money to work in the markets, perhaps drip feeding it in (and feed it into your pension for the next few years as described above). If you mean in 3 years, then of course not so much. 

Any money you then don't want in the volatile markets you could just go with 1 year fixes perhaps.

And whilst you carefully think about all of that, easy access at circa 1.8% with one of the best buys..

This is generally good advice, but does it still hold true if the OP wants to draw the whole sum at one go, to buy a property?

Perhaps there is a flaw in my maths, but if the OP was to put £32k into a SIPP for five consecutive years and get the tax uplift on the contributions, then draw the lot back out in year six to buy the property, the one-off higher-rate tax hit of having a single large drawdown would leave him worse off than investing the same amounts outside of a SIPP.

xylophone

Have you looked into the cost of commuting from the south coast to your current location?