Last year to October, house prices rose by 7% and by November they had accelerated to 7.7% according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The average cost of a home rose to £288,00 which is the highest its ever been! Separate figures however show that housing prices rose by 6.4% in 2015 making the average price of a house £188,270.
When it comes to UK housing prices there is a clear north-south divide. Houses in the Eastern England region rose are said to of rose by 10.2% in comparison to houses in Scotland to only have rose by 0.4%. Nevertheless first time buyers should not be too put off by this great increase. The new ‘help to buy ISA’ will help first-time buyers to build guaranteed savings. As from the 1st December 2015 first-time buyers are now able to save into a Help to Buy savings account, which the government will add money to it. Like any ISA the interest you can earn will be free of both income and capital gains tax. Furthermore if a saver was to take money out of this account to buy a house or a flat the government will add 25% to whatever is in the account. For example once you have saved £12,000 the maximum the government will add is £3000.
Key facts about the ‘Help to buy’ Isa (HTB Isa):
- You cannot open a HTB Isa with a friend. However if two people want to buy a property together they can use their bonuses together meaning they can get up to £6000 to go towards the purchase.
- You can only open one cash Isa per year. So if you have cash Isas from previous years you can then still go and open a HTB Isa. You will have to close down any Isas opened that year in order to open another Isa in the same year.
- You can open a HTB Isa until 2019 and all bonuses must be claimed by 2030.
For more advice or help on this call our Manchester offices to speak to a member of our team on 0800 020 9542 or email hello@JacRox.co.
- Writing a business plan - 15/08/2023
- Lifetime ISAs - 15/08/2023
- Making Tax Digital Update - 15/08/2023