How OneFamily customer, Dan, landed an extra £11,000 towards his first home
Our customer, Dan Barker (29), got an extra £11,000 towards his first home using his OneFamily Lifetime ISA.
Lifetime ISAs (LISAs) are designed to help people buy their first home or save extra money for retirement. They come with a 25% bonus on the money you pay in, giving your first-home deposit fund a welcome boost.
OneFamily’s Lifetime ISA invests in stocks and shares because we believe this gives your money the best chance of out-growing inflation.*
Please note: This case study is not financial advice. If you’re not sure what’s best for your circumstances, it’s best to speak with a financial adviser.
Dan’s lifetime ISA success story
Dan’s mum encouraged him to open a lifetime ISA to take advantage of the 25% government bonus. This is surely the best LISA feature – every time you pay in, the government does too.
If you put in the maximum £4,000 each tax year, that’s £1,000 extra money towards a first-home deposit each year!
With the combination of the lifetime ISA bonus and increase in value from the stock market*, Dan benefitted from an extra £11,000 on top of the money he put into his lifetime ISA.
"The LISA is a great product which has helped me buy the type of home I want sooner than I would’ve otherwise been able to."
Dan Barker
How a lifetime ISA boosted Dan’s deposit fund
Dan invested money in his OneFamily Lifetime ISA for six years before getting the keys to his one-bed flat in Bristol.
He put in £21,050 of his own money in total, receiving over £5,000 in bonus money from the government.
Combined with investment returns*, he ended up with an extra £11,450 – taking his total lifetime ISA pot to £32,500.
Dan said: “I bought by myself which can make it really difficult to afford, but the extra money I received by investing into a LISA made it possible.
“It wouldn’t have happened otherwise, or I would’ve had to buy a property that required a lot more work or wouldn’t have been able to get the location I’ve got.
“The extra bonus and growth allowed me to get exactly what I want.”
Staying focused on his first-home goal
Dan, an engineer, was able to invest so much into his lifetime ISA partly because he moved back in with his parents. This allowed him to save on rent and bills, leaving him with almost an extra £1,000 to put into savings every month.
Of course, this option isn’t available to everyone. But saving on living costs, combined with the LISA bonus, meant Dan was able to afford the home he wanted – and get on the property ladder sooner.
Dan’s goal was to save £30,000 for his deposit, so that he could buy a home costing around £300,000. His lifetime ISA helped him exceed this target.
A place to call his own
Dan’s new flat needed a fair amount of work and renovation.
He said: “At the moment it’s a bit of an empty shell, but it’s all freshly painted and ready to add furniture into.
“There’s been lots of high and lows with renovating that I didn’t anticipate, so it’s nice to have the extra support of the LISA which has freed up some of my other savings to help with any unexpected expenses.”
Are lifetime ISAs worth it?
Dan certainly thinks so. And so do the 56,900 people across the UK who used a lifetime ISA towards their first-home deposit in the 2023/24 tax year.
Dan states: “I’m a big advocate of lifetime ISAs and for ISAs in general. I think it’s something we aren’t taught about in school, or at least I wasn’t anyway. It should be taught more in schools.
“The LISA is a great product which has helped me buy the type of home I want sooner than I would’ve otherwise been able to.”
*OneFamily’s Lifetime ISA invests in stocks and shares. This means your money has good potential to grow, but the value of your investments could go down as well as up and you could get back less money than you've put in.
Important information
Lifetime ISAs are designed to help people save for a first-home deposit or save extra for retirement.
If you don't use your lifetime ISA the way the government intended, you may have to pay a 25% government withdrawal charge. This could mean you lose some of the money you paid in, as well as the bonus. We explain more about the charge and how to avoid it in our withdrawal charge article.
Take your first step towards home ownership with our Lifetime ISA
Feeling inspired to buy your dream first home one day? Our Lifetime ISA can help you boost your deposit fund thanks to the 25% bonus, as well as any potential stocks and shares returns.
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