Help to Buy ISA 2026/27 — £3,000 Government Bonus for Existing Savers

The Help to Buy ISA is a government-backed savings account that gives eligible first-time buyers a 25% bonus on their savings, up to a maximum bonus of £3,000 on £12,000 of savings. The scheme closed to new accounts on 30 November 2019, but existing savers can continue under the scheme rules: contributions can be made until November 2029 and the bonus can be claimed until November 2030. Confirm your account balance and bonus claim with your ISA provider or conveyancer; use the Stamp Duty Calculator→ separately to estimate SDLT. The site does not currently provide a Help to Buy ISA calculator.

The bonus is paid at completion, not into your account: your solicitor claims it from HMRC and it lands in the deposit funds. That means the ISA behaves like a cash ISA until you buy — interest is tax-free, withdrawals are penalty-free, and you simply lose the bonus if you never complete a qualifying purchase.

Key Numbers for 2026/27

The bonus arithmetic is simple: every £800 you save earns £200 from the government. Save the full £2,400 a year and you can earn £600 of bonus for that year, until the £3,000 overall bonus cap is reached at £12,000 of savings. Further deposits can earn interest but no further Help to Buy bonus. Interest on the account is tax-free within the ISA wrapper.

The £200 monthly figure is a contribution limit, not a target that must be met every month. Missed months cannot normally be carried forward, but paying less does not create a penalty. The opening deposit was subject to the separate initial-deposit rule when the account was opened; it should not be treated as a new £1,000 allowance today. The current account statement and provider terms control how much can still be paid in, within the scheme's closing deadline.

The minimum is important when planning a purchase. A balance below £1,600 does not produce a smaller proportional bonus under the usual scheme claim: the minimum government bonus is £400 and the official example starts at £1,600. If a saver closes the account with less than the minimum, the conveyancer should not assume that a bonus is available. Confirm the account balance, closing statement and purchase conditions before requesting closure.

How the Bonus Is Paid

The bonus is never credited to your ISA. The sequence is: you save through the accumulation phase; when you are ready to buy, your conveyancer submits a bonus application through the HMRC portal; HMRC pays the 25% bonus directly to the solicitor, who adds it to your deposit funds at completion. Allow several weeks for the claim, and note that the bonus cannot be used for exchange deposits in the same way as cash — it arrives with the completion funds. If you do not complete a qualifying first-home purchase, no bonus is paid and your savings simply stay in the ISA.

Do not simply withdraw the balance as ordinary cash if you intend to claim the bonus. Ask the provider to close the Help to Buy ISA and issue the closing statement or letter required by the conveyancer. The solicitor uses that evidence for the bonus application. The bonus is for the purchase price at completion, not for the solicitor's fees, estate-agent fees or other buying costs. Keep the provider's closure date because a claim made after the scheme's permitted window may fail even if the account was historically eligible.

If a purchase falls through after a bonus has been paid, the conveyancer returns the bonus and supplies the purchase-failure notification used to reinstate the account. The saver should not treat the failed completion as a permanent loss of the account or redeposit the balance independently without following the provider's reinstatement process. A future purchase still needs to satisfy the first-time-buyer, price, sole-home and intended-residence conditions.

Real Example: Priya's Deposit

Priya opened her Help to Buy ISA in 2018 and has saved the maximum £200 a month plus her £1,000 opening deposit. Over six years that is £1,000 plus 72 months at £200 — £15,400 saved before interest. Her bonus is capped at £3,000, so her deposit at completion is roughly £18,400 before interest.

A saver who opened later, or who skipped months, receives 25% of eligible savings up to the cap — so a £10,000 balance would produce a £2,500 bonus if the purchase conditions are met. The current scheme deadlines also matter: existing savers can contribute until November 2029 and claim the bonus until November 2030.

Help to Buy ISA vs Lifetime ISA

For anyone under 40 who does not already hold a Help to Buy ISA, a Lifetime ISA is an alternative with a £4,000 annual limit and a £450,000 price cap, but it has a 25% charge for non-qualifying withdrawals. If you already hold a Help to Buy ISA, compare the existing account’s property caps, deadlines and bonus with the LISA rules before transferring or using either bonus.

Interest, Tax and the £250,000 Trap

A Help to Buy ISA is a cash ISA, so interest is tax-free within the ISA wrapper. The bonus is separate from interest and is paid only when a qualifying purchase is completed. The bigger trap is the £250,000 price cap outside London: if the chosen home is above the applicable cap, the Help to Buy bonus cannot be claimed. The London cap is £450,000.

The cap applies to the purchase price of the home, not to the size of the mortgage or to the buyer's share of an ordinary purchase. Location is also important: the £450,000 limit is the London limit, while a property outside London uses the £250,000 limit. Shared ownership, new-build arrangements, auctions and unusual legal interests should be checked with the conveyancer and scheme administrator before exchange. A first-time-buyer label from a lender or estate agent is not, by itself, evidence that the ISA scheme conditions are met.

Eligibility in a Nutshell

You can claim the bonus if the purchase meets the scheme’s first-time-buyer, sole-residence and price-cap conditions. The account must have been opened before 30 November 2019, and it cannot be a joint Help to Buy ISA — each saver holds their own account and may claim their own bonus. If two eligible first-time buyers each hold an account, both bonuses can be used for the same home, subject to the scheme rules.

Can You Have Both?

Yes — you can hold a Help to Buy ISA and a Lifetime ISA at the same time, and use both pots towards a first home. The catch is that the government bonus can only be paid from one scheme for a single purchase, so you choose the more generous payout at completion. In practice that means claiming the LISA bonus (up to £1,000 a year, growing) and treating the Help to Buy ISA as a penalty-free cash pot for the rest of the deposit. You cannot use the LISA bonus if the property costs more than £450,000, and you cannot use the Help to Buy ISA bonus above £250,000 outside London, so the price cap decides which scheme funds your completion.

Transferring a Help to Buy ISA into a Lifetime ISA is not a free way to claim two bonuses. HMRC's Lifetime ISA guidance says that Help to Buy ISA funds transferred after 6 April 2018 count towards the Lifetime ISA annual limit, and the saver still can use only one government bonus for the purchase. If a saver claims the Help to Buy bonus and then makes a non-qualifying Lifetime ISA withdrawal, the 25% Lifetime ISA withdrawal charge can apply. Compare the cash balance, transfer timing, LISA 12-month first-payment rule, property cap and mortgage requirement before closing either account.

Action Plan for 2026/27

Frequently Asked Questions

Confirm the bonus and claim deadline with your ISA provider or conveyancer, then read the Lifetime ISA 2026/27 guide and the First-Time Buyer Stamp Duty guide to complete your home-buying picture.

Official sources

• GOV.UK: Help to Buy ISA
• HMRC: Managing Lifetime ISA applications and accounts
• GOV.UK: Lifetime ISA — withdrawing money
• GOV.UK: Help to Buy ISA — six things you might not know