If you’ve still got a Help to Buy ISA sitting there from a few years ago, you’ve probably wondered whether it’s still doing anything useful — or whether you should just move your money somewhere else. Maybe you opened it back in 2017 with good intentions, then life happened, and now it’s 2026 and you’re not sure if it’s still live, still worth paying into, or quietly going nowhere.
Here’s the first thing to clear up: you cannot open a brand new Help to Buy ISA in 2026. That window closed years ago. But if you already have one, it’s not dead money — it still has a government bonus attached to it, and there are real deadlines coming up that affect whether you get to keep that bonus at all.
This article is for existing Help to Buy ISA holders, not people hoping to open a new one. It covers what the account actually does, the deadlines you need to know, whether it’s still worth paying into compared with the alternative (the Lifetime ISA), and exactly what to do when you’re ready to buy.
What a Help to Buy ISA actually does
A Help to Buy ISA is a savings account for first-time buyers, launched in 2015. The government tops up what you save by 25%, up to a maximum bonus of £3,000 on £12,000 of savings. You could put in an initial lump sum of up to £1,200 in month one, then up to £200 a month after that.
The bonus isn’t paid into your account as you go. It’s calculated and paid out at the point you actually complete on a property purchase — your solicitor or conveyancer claims it on your behalf and it gets added to the funds used to complete the sale. You can’t access the bonus by just withdrawing your savings for any other reason.
To use the bonus, the property has to cost £250,000 or less outside London, or £450,000 or less in London.
You can’t open one anymore — here’s why that matters
This is the most common confusion people have, and it’s worth addressing directly: Help to Buy ISAs closed to new applicants on 30 November 2019. If you don’t already have one, you cannot get one now, full stop. There’s no workaround, no reopening it, no “ask your bank nicely.”
If you’re starting from scratch in 2026 and looking for a first-home savings account with a government bonus, the Lifetime ISA is the product that replaced it in practice, even though technically both existed side by side for a while. More on how that compares below.
If you already hold a Help to Buy ISA, though, the rest of this matters a lot more than you might think.
The two deadlines you actually need to know
This is where people get caught out, because the account doesn’t just quietly run forever.
You can keep paying into your Help to Buy ISA until 30 November 2029. After that date, you can’t add any more money to it, even though the account itself still exists.
You must claim the government bonus by 30 November 2030. After that, the bonus disappears — gone, not transferable, not backdated. If you’re still saving toward a deposit and you haven’t bought by then, you lose the 25% top-up on anything still sitting in the account.
So if you’re someone who opened an account years ago and hasn’t touched it since, this is worth checking today, not “at some point.” Log in, see what’s actually in there, and work out roughly when you’re realistically likely to buy. If that date is anywhere near or past November 2030, you need a plan, not just a vague intention.
How to actually claim the bonus when you buy
This part trips people up because the bonus doesn’t work like a normal savings top-up. You don’t withdraw the money and add 25% yourself.
Here’s the actual sequence:
- You find a property and have an offer accepted.
- You tell your solicitor or conveyancer you have a Help to Buy ISA and want to use the bonus.
- Your provider issues a “closing solicitor’s letter” confirming how much is in the account.
- Your solicitor applies for the bonus on your behalf through the Help to Buy ISA scheme.
- The bonus gets added at completion — it goes toward the purchase, not into your bank account beforehand.
The bonus can’t be used for exchange deposits (the smaller deposit you often pay when contracts are exchanged, before completion). It only applies at completion. If your purchase involves a tight exchange-to-completion gap, flag this early with your solicitor so nobody’s caught short on timing.
Help to Buy ISA vs Lifetime ISA — the comparison people actually need
Because new Help to Buy ISAs don’t exist anymore, a lot of existing holders are also wondering whether they should be paying into a Lifetime ISA (LISA) alongside, or instead.
| Feature | Help to Buy ISA | Lifetime ISA (LISA) |
|---|---|---|
| Can you open one new in 2026? | No — closed since Nov 2019 | Yes |
| Government bonus | 25%, max £3,000 total | 25%, max £1,000 per year |
| Annual contribution limit | Up to £2,400/year (£200/month) | Up to £4,000/year |
| Property price cap | £250,000 (£450,000 in London) | £450,000 anywhere in the UK |
| Can also be used for retirement | No | Yes, from age 60 |
| Early withdrawal for non-house reasons | Keep your savings, lose the bonus | 25% government penalty — you can lose more than the bonus |
| Deadline to pay in | 30 Nov 2029 | None currently |
| Deadline to claim bonus | 30 Nov 2030 | None — bonus applies as you go |
The LISA generally lets you save faster toward a bigger bonus each year, and the higher property price cap applies everywhere, not just in London. If you’re an existing Help to Buy ISA holder who hasn’t maxed out your contributions, it’s worth running the numbers on whether opening a LISA alongside — and prioritising it — gets you further.
One important rule: you can hold both accounts, but you can only use the bonus from one of them toward buying your home. You’ll choose which one at completion.
The misconception: “I should just empty it and put it in a normal savings account”
A lot of people assume that because interest rates on standard savings accounts have been decent recently, they might as well close the Help to Buy ISA and move to something simpler. This is usually a mistake.
The 25% government bonus beats almost any interest rate you’ll find on a standard savings account. Even in a year where good savings rates might land around 4–5%, that’s nowhere near the effective boost of a 25% top-up on money you were already putting toward a house deposit. The only scenario where this logic holds is if you’re not planning to buy a home with that money at all — in which case you’re giving up the bonus anyway, and the interest rate becomes the only thing that matters.
If you’re definitely buying a home eventually, leave the money where the bonus applies, and check MoneyHelper’s guidance on Help to Buy ISAs if you want to double check your specific provider’s rules on withdrawals and closures.
What to actually do with yours this year
If you’re not actively saving into it anymore but still plan to buy within the next few years, there’s nothing urgent — just put a reminder in your calendar for mid-2029, giving yourself a buffer before the contribution deadline.
If you are still saving into it monthly, check whether you’re anywhere close to the £12,000 cap that earns the maximum £3,000 bonus. Once you hit that, extra savings don’t earn any more bonus, so it may make sense to redirect additional saving elsewhere — a LISA, or a standard savings account — rather than parking money in the Help to Buy ISA once it’s maxed out.
If your house-buying timeline has slipped and you’re now looking at 2030 or later, this is the one that genuinely needs attention now. Either accelerate your plans, or accept you may be racing a deadline that doesn’t move.
The bottom line
- You cannot open a new Help to Buy ISA in 2026 — it’s been closed to new applicants since November 2019. If you don’t already have one, look at a Lifetime ISA instead.
- If you already have one, you can keep paying in until 30 November 2029, but the bonus itself must be claimed by 30 November 2030 — after that, it’s gone.
- The bonus is claimed by your solicitor at completion, not withdrawn by you directly — tell them early that you have one.
- Check your balance this week. If you’re near the £12,000 cap, consider whether a Lifetime ISA makes more sense for additional savings.
- If your house-buying timeline now stretches past 2030, treat that as a real deadline, not a someday problem — the bonus doesn’t get extended.
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