Using your Lifetime ISA to buy your first home

Step 1 – Find out how much you could borrow

Get started by using our Affordability Calculator for a check based on your income and outgoings. This will give you an idea of how much you could potentially borrow. At the end, you can also request a Decision in Principle (DIP), if you're ready, or you can do this within 30 days of receiving your calculation.

Remember, your new home must be in the UK and it mustn't cost more than £450,000 if you’re planning to use your Lifetime ISA. Plus, you must have made your first payment into the Lifetime ISA at least 12 months before withdrawing funds to avoid the 25% government withdrawal charge.

Step 3 – Releasing the money from your Lifetime ISA

Your savings will remain in your account until they’re needed by the conveyancer handling your purchase. So, when the time comes:

• Pass on a completed Investor Declaration Form to your conveyancer
• They will then complete their Conveyancer Declaration Form and send it to us
• We'll then email you a confirmation form for you to sign and return to us, which will approve the release of your funds to your conveyancer
• Once we have received all of the above documents we'll release the funds to your conveyancer, which can take up to 30 days
• Your conveyancer then has 90 days to complete the purchase on your behalf.

If the conveyancer finds they need more than 90 days they can ask for an extension. If the sale doesn’t go ahead they must return the money to us to put back into your Lifetime ISA. If the money is not returned (unless an extension has been agreed), the government withdrawal charge of 25% of the amount withdrawn will apply.

If you’re using the Shared Ownership scheme, your Lifetime ISA can be used towards the deposit when you buy your initial share, but it can’t be used without paying the government withdrawal charge to buy any further shares in future.

If you close your Lifetime ISA account while there is a government bonus pending it will not be paid to you. If you want to ensure any pending government bonus is paid, your Lifetime ISA must have a balance of at least £1 until the government bonus has been credited to your account.