For those saving for a first-time residential property, Help to Buy ISAs and Lifetime ISAs are no-brainers, as an unbeatable 25% bonus is added as well as interest. In other words you get an extra £250 per £1,000 saved towards any mortgage. Yet as you can only get the home-buying bonus on one of them, you need to pick which is...

On 6 April 2017 the new Lifetime ISA launches, allowing first-time buyers aged under 40 to save up to £4,000 a year, with the state adding 25% on top towards a deposit for a home. Yet there’s already a very similar product called the Help to Buy ISA many first-time buyers already have. So the big question is, should you...

The new Lifetime ISA (LISA) launches next April. It allows eligible savers to put away up to £4,000 a year. Then if it’s used for a first-time home purchase or retirement, the state adds a 25% bonus on top – a possible £1,000 a year bonus for up to 30 years. While the already up-and-running Help to Buy...

The Help to Buy ISA is a huge boon for first-time buyers. It means when you save in it for a mortgage deposit, you’ll get up to £3,000 added on top. The new Lifetime ISA is going to dwarf even that when it launches in 2017 – adding up to £1,000 a year, for up to 32 years,...

Update Note August 2016: While reviewing this blog I’ve noticed that in bashing it out, I used the term house deposit as shorthand – but that is ambiguous. So to clarify I am talking about the deposit you need to get a mortgage for a house, not the deposit you must give a seller at exchange. This...