Help-to-buy Isa clause under attack for hampering first-time buyers | Society | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... ime-buyers

I took it on cos it made sense when I researched it. But I'm struggling to recall how it was sold to me right enough...

According to this there has been some mis-information/misunderstanding about the situation and the bank will take the 25% bonus into account when calculating your deposit.

http://www.moneywise.co.uk/blogs/tom-wilson/dont-panic-your-help-to-buy-isa-not-useless

Yes, from what I read, the guardian are not being truthful. The money can only be released as part of a house purchase, so there's some limitations to how the bonus is provided, but it is available before purchase.


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I thought the story sounded odd: Govt offers help-to-buy ISA scheme to help first time buyers buy a house but then say they can't use the money to buy a house?

Just to bring this one back from the dead....

So all parties have agreed on a date so once I provide the solicitors with our deposit, contracts can be exchanged and the date fixed. But... the solicitor said the Help to Buy ISA 'bonus' will only be made available to her at completion i.e. when we get the keys. That won't happen for a month which incidentally is also the approximate amout of time it takes the ISA bonus to be claimed once closed. For that reason (and I think what the original article was alluding to) the bonus cannot be used to form part of the deposit.

Luckily we have enough to cover the deposit without the ISA and bonus but I can see how this has become an issue for others when it's fasely believed it can be used for the actual deposit. In our case the bonus will simply be kept by the solicitors (we never see it regardless) and be deducted from fees, stamp duty, etc.