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If you are a first time buyer you may be eligible to open a Help to Buy ISA account which can provide you with a cash boost of up to 25% towards you deposit.
The government will top up your savings by 25% providing you have saved a minimum of £1,600. The maximum bonus that the government will pay to any one ISA savings account is £3,000. The bonus will be paid only when you buy a property. The maximum you can save in anyone given month is £200 per account however you will be allowed to make a one off lump sum payment of £1,200 when you open an account.
To be eligible you need to be over 16 years old and be a First Time Buyer. You can open account between 1st December 2015 and 1st December 2019 and you will get the bonus towards your deposit as long as you buy your first home before 2030.
Remember the bonus is per ISA account not per property so if you are saving to buy a house with your partner you can open 1 Help to Buy ISA account each and get the bonus paid out on your joint mortgage. This means that collectively you could save £400 / month and if you both were to save the maximum amount you would receive a £6,000 bonus towards your new property.
Let's look at a typical example of how much a couple could save. You are buying a house for £100,000 and you want a 95% Mortgage so you require a £5,000 deposit, instead of saving up the whole £5,000 yourself you and your partner open up a help to buy ISA. You both save £2,000 a total of £4,000 when you buy your first home the government will top up both accounts with an additional £500 in this example you would have saved a total of £1,000.