Frequently Asked Questions

Habstash is a digital platform that makes it easy for millions of aspiring homeowners in the UK to save for their homes.

We’re focused on people wanting to own their first home in England and Wales any time in the future. Whether you are renting a property or living at home, we’re here to help you navigate the home-saving journey.

The information about homeownership out there is complex and fragmented and it can be a struggle to piece it all together. We simplify this, first by helping you set a savings goal to work towards. We do this by determining your home affordability, what kind of a home you can get, how much to save and how long it will take for you to save that amount after factoring any home-buying related fees. Once this is done, you’ll be able to track your progress through an interactive dashboard.

You can also play around with our Saving Simulator tool to see what types of cash and investment products will help you reach your home saving goal quicker.

This is just the beginning. In the future, we plan to build on this and expand our set of features with your support and feedback.

We’re making the entire experience of saving for a home simple and seamless - right from the time you first start thinking about owning a home to the time you are ready to buy a home.

We approach this by giving you all the information and tools you need to save for an affordable home in your desired area. We recognise that personal circumstances and market conditions can change over time, so we ensure your goal is managed dynamically so that there are no surprises when you’re ready to buy a home.

There are solutions out there that give you pieces to the home-saving puzzle. Our aim is to stop the head-scratching and give you the complete puzzle.

At present, we are keeping our platform free for all our customers.

We’re not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to provide financial or mortgage advice. The information on our site is provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as advice. If you need advice, you should speak with a qualified financial or mortgage advisor.

We currently don’t provide mortgage loans. However, we do give you a sense of what your mortgage payments could look like by the time you’re ready to buy your home.

At present, we don’t provide any such services associated with your home purchase. However, we do tell you what you can expect to pay for the different services including legal, surveyor, mortgage broker, arrangement, etc.

We work out the price of the home you could afford based on information you provide us including your income, how much you’ve already saved for your home and expect to contribute until you’re ready to buy, and on lending criteria from the major lending institutions. Based on your area preferences, we then help you identify types of homes that are in line with your affordability. We also estimate the deposit you’ll need to put down and all the fees associated with your home purchase including stamp duty, legal fees, etc.

No, we show prices averaged across properties that match your preferences and that were sold in your desired location over the last 18 months. The results shown are based on your home affordability.

No, you don’t. At present, we do not accept money into our platform.

We take data privacy very seriously and are committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. Learn more to see what kind of information we collect and how it is treated and used.

Once you’ve onboarded and set your home saving goal, you’ll be able to track your progress via an interactive dashboard.

At present, your savings are tracked based on how much you tell us you’ve saved and how much you can contribute towards your goal. It’s important that you update this information regularly inside your dashboard in order to keep your goal current.

You can find tips and ideas on how best to save for your home in our email newsletters and blog articles.

Once you register, you will gain access to our Savings Simulator tool via your dashboard. Here, you can play around with different cash and investment options and see how you could boost your returns to reach your goal sooner.

If you can’t find an answer to your question here, please email the team at [email protected] and we’ll be happy to help you!