Is my customer’s purchase considered a qualifying property purchase?
To withdraw for a first-time home purchase, your customer must meet the following requirements:
- Be a first-time home buyer;
- Have a Lifetime ISA that has been open for at least 12 months when the withdrawal is made (this 12 months begins from the customer’s first successful deposit with us. If they transferred their Lifetime ISA to us then the start date is the date they opened their first Lifetime ISA);
- Be buying a property in the UK which does not cost more than £450,000. (This applies to the full purchase price of the property, not just the share the customer is purchasing);
- Be buying a property with a mortgage or regulated home purchase plan;
- They must be living in the property at completion, or the earliest point that the property becomes habitable (exclusions apply to civil servants working overseas – please contact us for further information);
- They must not have claimed, or intend to claim, a bonus from a Help to Buy ISA for the same residential property purchase.
If you are unsure on whether your customers’ specific situation meets this criteria set out by HMRC, please contact them directly for further guidance. Moneybox cannot provide you, or the customer, with legal or financial advice. You can find HMRC’s official guidance here.