Legal seperation / divorce

So myself and my husband have seperated. Its amicable for now and we have split all our savings down the middle. In process of selling home which will also be divided in half.

We cant apply for a divorce for another 1.5 years, so I am wondering do we need to go down the legal seperation route or is that wasting money on solicitors?

I plan to buy a property of my own in the next 6 months so I dont want him being able to lay claim on it when divorce comes around. Would legal seperation even cover that off? Im afraid that when divorce rolls around he could be entitled to half my new property.