Martin Lewis: A warning for all wannabe first-time buyers or even those years away from buying
Never owned a home? Open a Help to Buy ISA – even if you've no savings, just put £1 in. This special ISA – that gives first-time buyers up to £3,000 free towards their first mortgage – closes to new applicants on 30 November 2019, so there's now less than six months left. Yet open one before then and you bag the facility in case you ever need it later.
Martin Lewis: A warning to first time buyers – you’ve less than a week to decide if your Help to Buy ISA should become a Lifetime ISA (LISA) – some could gain £1,000s
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...
Should you switch your Help to Buy ISA into a Lifetime ISA?
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...
First-time buyers’ trick: Max LISA and Help to Buy ISA gains by timing it right
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...
Can you rent out a home bought with a Help to Buy ISA/Lifetime ISA?
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,...
The Help to Buy ISA vs Lifetime ISA – which should first-time buyers get?
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...
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Recent Blogs
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Martin Lewis VIDEO: Should you pay off your Plan 1 student loan?
22 October 2019
If you started university between 1998 and 2012, or since then in Scotland and Northern Ireland, you'll have a Plan 1 student loan. While much is written about whether those with savings should overpay the current English Plan 2 student loans, there's little out there about Plan 1. I wanted to change that, so here's a video explaining how to decide... -
Martin Lewis: Debt desperation to happy homeowner in 8 years
21 October 2019
No matter how dire your money situation seems, there is always hope. Things may never be perfect, but they can improve and taking action is the best way to make that happen. The team recently forwarded me an email from Jay, which exemplifies that in beautiful technicolour detail. And Jay has now kindly given me permission to reproduce it
