From tomorrow, Tuesday 1 December, Nationwide Building Society is launching its Help to Buy ISA, with a 2% rate on savings and a cashback of up to £1,750 for first time buyers accessing its Save to Buy mortgage range.
These benefits are in addition to a Government Help to Buy bonus of up to £3,000 per customer. It means that joint first time buyer mortgage applicants who have each saved into a Nationwide Help to Buy ISA can therefore potentially access a total bonus and cashback benefit of up to £7,750 towards their first home.
Chris Rhodes, Nationwide’s Retail Director, said:
“Nationwide has a long history of supporting first time buyers and expects that the new Help to Buy ISA will enable even more customers take their first steps on the housing ladder.”
“The Society already supports other Help to Buy schemes and offers around of a third of all lending for the Help to Buy Equity Loan scheme.”
“Through our existing Save to Buy initiative, we have already provided more than £1 billion in mortgage lending and rewarded almost 10,000 customers who have committed to saving towards their deposit. Now we will be able to provide additional incentives for customers who save regularly and plan early to buy a home of their own.”
The Help to Buy ISA is available only to first time buyers. Savers can deposit up to £1,200 in the month they open the account and a further £200 in each subsequent month. For every £200 maintained in a Help to Buy ISA account, £50 will be paid by the Government as a bonus at the time of purchasing a first home. The minimum Help to Buy deposit bonus is £400 and the maximum £3,000.
Details of Nationwide’s Help to Buy ISA structure is as follows:
Savings
The savings rate for the Help to Buy ISA is 2% AER
Customer can contribute up to the limit of £200 a month into the Nationwide Help to Buy ISA product and invest into another Nationwide cash ISA product in the same tax year.
This is because, currently unique amongst the major savings providers, Nationwide will enable both new and existing customers wanting to open a Help to Buy ISA with the Society to split their ISA savings across more than one cash ISA product, all within the Nationwide ISA wrapper.
Help to Buy ISA savers with Nationwide will therefore be able to benefit from spreading their ISA balance across more than one ISA product with the Society, saving up to the full annual tax year ISA limit of £15,240.
Mortgages
Nationwide’s Help to Buy ISA customers will be offered access to the Society’s Save to Buy mortgage range, available for those with a 5 to 14.99 per cent deposit.
Save to Buy mortgages offer additional cashback to customers saving through Nationwide’s Help to Buy ISA product – £500 for savings of £0-4,999 and £1,000 on savings of £5,000, as well as the Government’s Help to Buy ISA bonus.
All first time buyers with Nationwide will also qualify for a £500 cashback on all mortgage deals.
Customers with a main Nationwide current account are currently eligible for a £250 Flexclusive cashback on all mortgage deals
This means the total cashbacks currently available from Nationwide to its Help to Buy ISA customers completing on a Nationwide Save to Buy mortgage can be up to £1,750
Customers who take a Save to Buy mortgage above 90 per cent loan to value (LTV) also receive a 0.20% discount on the equivalent main customer rate.
All Nationwide mortgage customers can now benefit from fee-free standard valuations.
Existing Save to Buy customers will be able to make withdrawals from their account to fund a new Nationwide Help to Buy ISA.