It’s Nicer with an ISA

Buying in London definitely seems like the impossible dream, however last weekend, whilst at David’s brothers wedding, amongst family members who live in 3 bedroom homes, surrounded by friends with children and adults doing all these grown-up things – we thought that it might be time to get our shit together.

We’re sure pretty much everyone knows about this, however we didn’t put too much thought in to it and thought it might be worth making people aware. It’s just a little thing called a Help to Buy ISA – we know, we know, a little late to the party, however for any of you who are unsure to what it is and would love to buy but feel it’s out of your reach then don’t fret, there is light. In short…

A Help to Buy ISA is a government scheme where the government will give you 25% of what you save. There’s of course some regulations. You can only save £200 a month and the maximum you can ever save is £12,000 – this means though that if you put away your £200 a month then it would take you five years and by the end, when you come to buy, the government would give you your 25% – so £3,000 meaning you’ll have £15,000 in five years. Not to shabby if you ask us!

Depending on who you open your account with you’ll also receive interest – we’ve opened with Virgin Money as they have the highest interest at the moment of 3%. This all helps you to get there a little faster.

You can also deposit a bigger hit of £1,200 in your first month. This is the only chance you get to do this so we’d advice saving that up first, then opening the account and putting that money in. It’s just a little helping hand to move things along quicker.

If you’re solo and looking to buy then it’s going to take a little longer because £15,000 for London is definitely not going to be enough! If you’re a couple though then after five years you definitely have a good chance to start looking.

This might be information that most people know, however we didn’t know that much until looking further into it and are now really glad we did. Hopefully this helps others to be on there way with buying. We know it’s serious but I guess everyone has to start somewhere.

For more information, head to the Help to Buy website where it outlines all the finer details and let us know if you open or if you have any other further advice on buying – we’d love to hear!

David & Mark x