Lifetime ISA for first property help.

[Sunflowersok]

Hi,

Me and my partner are saving for our first (ever) property. We had initially looked in to the help to buy isa but decided not to open one before the closing deadline last year because you could only invest so much a month and we heard with the lifetime ISA you can invest more in a shorter amount of time.

We have a small lump sum saved and a great starting point, but we feel pretty overwhelmed by who to open this with. There are a few options of people who do them, with benefits and different Ts and Cs for each one.

Has anyone got experience of this and who did you open with?

We have also read that we could each potentially open one, we have the potential to put the max of 4K each in two accounts per year, but on buying a property can you merge these accounts? And do you only get the government bonus from one account or can both contribute towards the first home?

Thanks!

Firstly will you be buying a home in the 12-36 month time period? If so then a LISA is a great product to use.

You can each put in £4k to your individual LISA. You get £1k topup from Government on that £4k. So £8k between you becomes £10k.
You can do this every tax year, so if you are aiming to buy in say July 2021 then you can do it now and again on 6th April 2021 and get the bonus both tax years

When you purchase your solicitor will apply for the money from both accounts.

Yes you can use both LISA’s to purchase your property. One of the best is the one Moneybox offer as they also pay a high interest rate on top of the government top up bonus. Plus it’s nice you can see the money accumulating as the bonus comes in pretty quickly.
The only real issue is that you have to buy a house costing less than £450k and you lose the bonus if you take out the money without using it towards a house or retirement.

I have one with Skipton but they were the only option back when I opened it a few years ago, I've been very happy with their service if that helps at all.
Yes you can both have one and use both when you come to buy a house as long as you are both first time buyers which you are.
Like you I had the money elsewhere in another account (standard help to buy) so have gradually been moving £4K a year over into my LISA.
I also like the added bonus of retirement planning, I'm going to keep it open with £1 in once I've purchased a house and even though I probably won't save much to begin with, it will be nice to have the option to start saving money in there again in the future

Also I always have enough money in my bog standard easy access saver to cover emergency's/the odd treat so I'll never have to worry about being penalised for taking money out of my LISA.