Guidance

HS283 Private Residence Relief (2021)

Updated 6 April 2024

This helpsheet explains the relief available on the disposal of your private residence where you disposed of it between 6 April 2020 and 5 April 2021. It’s only an introduction and if you’re in any doubt about your circumstances, you should ask your tax adviser. HMRC will also be pleased to help. You can also read the Capital Gains Tax Manual which explains the rules in more detail.

This helpsheet will help you to fill in the Capital Gains Tax summary pages of your 2020 to 2021 tax return.

From 6 April 2020, if you sell or dispose of the whole or part of an interest in UK residential property, you must tell HMRC within 30 days of the date of conveyance, you may also have to pay Capital Gains Tax on any gains you make. More information can be found at Report and pay Capital Gains Tax on UK property.

How the relief works

You would normally have to pay Capital Gains Tax on any gain you make if you dispose of:

• a dwelling house (which can include a house, flat, houseboat or fixed caravan) which is your home
• part of a dwelling house which is your home
• part of the garden attached to your home

However, you’ll be entitled to full relief where all the following conditions are met:

• the dwelling house has been your only or main residence throughout your period of ownership
• you have not been absent, other than for an allowed period of absence or because you have been living in job-related accommodation, during your period of ownership
• the garden or grounds including the buildings on them are not greater than the permitted area
• no part of your home has been used exclusively for business purposes during your period of ownership —working from home using a room that is also used for non-business purposes will not prevent entitlement to full relief

We’ve explained the definitions in the section definition of terms. If you meet all of these conditions, you will not have to pay Capital Gains Tax on the disposal. You will not need to complete the Capital Gains Tax summary pages of your tax return if you’ve made no other disposals or chargeable gains and do not want to make any capital gains claims or elections. Find out more information about how to fill in your tax return.

If you do not meet all of the conditions, you may still get partial relief under certain circumstances and you will need to complete the Capital Gains Tax summary pages of your tax return. This helpsheet describes the circumstances when you may get relief and explains how much relief you can deduct from any gain to calculate the chargeable gain.

Even if you meet all of these conditions, you will not get Private Residence Relief if you:

• dispose of all or part of your garden after you have disposed of your home
• acquire either a dwelling house or spend money on it, or both, in order to realise a gain on its disposal

For example, you may have bought the house to sell it quickly at a profit or, if you were a tenant, you may have bought out the freehold in order to increase your profit on sale. In this case, you will need to provide details on your tax return.

If you’ve made a loss on the disposal instead of a gain

If you make a loss on the disposal of your home and you would have got Private Residence Relief if you had made a gain, your loss will not be an allowable loss and you will not be able to offset it against any gains you’ve made. If you would have got partial relief, part of your loss will not be allowable, and that part should be calculated in the same way as you would have calculated the partial relief if you had made a gain.

Who qualifies for relief

Any individual is entitled to the relief on any gain arising on the disposal of their only or main residence. This is provided that, in calculating the amount of the gain that would be a chargeable gain if the relief did not exist, no account would have to be taken of any Gift Hold-Over Relief obtained under section 260 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 by any person for an earlier disposal.

There are special transitional rules may allow some Private Residence Relief to apply where Gift Hold-Over Relief is obtained for a transfer which was made before 10 December 2003. Relief under these transitional provisions must be claimed (see the section how to claim relief).

Trustees of settled property and personal representatives may claim relief in some circumstances (see the sections Private Residence Relief on the disposal of settled property and personal representatives). Companies are not entitled to relief.

You are entitled to relief if you own the freehold of your home or if you’re a tenant owning a lease. You’re also entitled to relief if you jointly own the freehold or lease with someone else.

Capital Gains Tax for non-residents on UK residential property

From 6 April 2015 if you sell (or dispose of) the whole or part of an interest in a UK residential property when non-resident you must tell HMRC and pay any Capital Gains Tax due within 30 days of the date of conveyance. Find out more information about this in the Tell HMRC about Capital Gains Tax on UK property or land if you’re non-resident guide.

Definition of terms

Dwelling house

Your dwelling house may be a single building, for example, a detached house. It may be more than one building, for example, a house with a detached garage, or it may be part of a building, for example, a flat. If your home includes more than one building, for example, if it has several outbuildings, any relief available for your dwelling house might not extend to all of the outbuildings.

Example 1

Your home consists of a house, a detached garage, a granny flat near the house, half an acre (0.203 hectares) of garden and a summer house at the end of the garden. Your dwelling house is the house together with the garage and the granny flat, but excluding the summer house. (This example is considered again in relation to the heading ‘permitted area’).

Deciding which buildings make up your dwelling house is only important if your home has a garden or grounds larger than the permitted area. If you’ve a single lodger, the rooms occupied by the lodger qualify for relief.

If you have more than one lodger, or if you let part or all your home at any time in your period of ownership, the let parts will not qualify for Private Residence Relief. However, you may be entitled to claim Letting Relief. If part of your dwelling house is used exclusively for a trade or business, that part won’t qualify for relief.

Example 2

Your house consists of a shop with your living accommodation above. You’re only entitled to relief for the living accommodation. If you sell the house, you should split any gain between the gain on the shop, which may be chargeable, and the gain on the living accommodation, which will attract Private Residence Relief.

If you live in a fixed caravan or houseboat, you’re entitled to relief in the same way as if you lived in a house or a flat. If your home is outside the UK, you may still qualify for relief.

Only or main residence

You can nominate which residence is to be treated as your main residence for any period. Your nomination must be made within 2 years of the date you first have a particular combination of residences. If there’s a change in your combination of residences, a new 2-year period begins. If you do not make a nomination, the question of which is your main residence will be determined on the facts.

Example 3

In June 2002 you bought a house which became your only home. In May 2020 you bought another house which you occupied as a second home. You can nominate the second home or your original home to be your main residence. Your nomination must be made by May 2022.

If you’re married or in a civil partnership and you’re not separated from your spouse or civil partner, you can have only one main residence between you. If, when you married or registered as civil partners, you each owned a residence and you’ve continued to use both residences, you can nominate jointly which is to be the main residence, and the 2-year period for doing so begins on the date of marriage or registration as civil partners.

If you’re separated, each of you may have a different only or main residence and each may be entitled to relief on any gains arising on the disposal of the residences. You’re treated as living together unless you are separated under a court order by Deed of Separation, or are otherwise separated in such circumstances that the separation is likely to be permanent.

From 6 April 2015 additional rules apply to nominations in favour of a residence located in a jurisdiction in which you’re not tax resident. So, if you’re a tax resident of the UK and have a residence in another country that you’ve previously nominated or want to nominate as your main residence the additional rules need to be considered. Guidance is included in the Capital Gains Tax Manual, CG64577.

Period of ownership

Your period of ownership begins on the date you first acquired the dwelling house, or on 31 March 1982 if that is later. It ends when you dispose of it. The final 9 months of your period of ownership always qualify for relief, regardless of how you use the property in that time, as long as the dwelling house has been your only or main residence at some point.

If you’re a disabled person or a resident in a care home the final 36 months of ownership may qualify for relief if you do not have any other relevant right in relation to a private residence. More detail is available in the Capital Gains Tax Manual.

If the dwelling house has not always been your only or main residence, you will need to split the gain. When calculating the proportion of the gain eligible for relief, you multiply the gain by a fraction equal to the periods of occupation (including the final 9 or 36 months where appropriate) divided by the period of ownership (both periods starting at 31 March 1982 if the house was owned before that date). You do not introduce valuations of the property at the dates of changes of use.

Example 4

You bought your house in January 2007 and sold it in January 2021. You lived in the property as your only or main residence apart from 9 months in 2008 when you lived in a different house. So, the house qualifies for relief for 159 out of the 168 months you owned it.

A proportion of any gain you make from the disposal amounting to 159 ÷ 168 will qualify for relief. If you had moved out of the house at some time after July April 2020 instead of in 2008, your relief would not be restricted as this absence would have been during the final period of 9 months. If you had bought the house before 31 March 1982, the calculation above would begin from 31 March 1982 and not from when you bought the house.

Example 5

You bought your house in February 1981 and lived in it as your only home until March 1995. You then moved to a new house which became your main home but retained the first house as a second home. It was not let. You sold the first house in March 2021.

You are entitled to relief for the period when it was your only home (counting from 31 March 1982), from March 1982 to March 1995, 156 months, plus the final 9 months of ownership, a total of 165 months. The period of ownership from 31 March 1982 to March 2021 is 468 months. The relief is 165 ÷ 468 months.

Period of absence

Some periods when you were not using the house as your only or main residence will still qualify for relief. These should be treated as periods of actual occupation when you’re calculating the fraction of any gain that qualifies for relief.

If, for up to a period of 24 months you do not occupy your new home when you acquire it because you’re unable to sell your old home, or you need to carry out refurbishment redecoration or alterations, you can treat up to the first 24 months as if the house had been your only or main residence in that period. The same treatment applies when you buy land to build a house on.

Example 6

You bought a house in January 1998, but it needed major refurbishment and you could not move in until January 1999. If it was subsequently your only or main residence until you sold it in June 2020, you are entitled to full relief.

Certain other periods of absence from your dwelling house may be treated as periods of residence if both before and after the period there’s a time when the dwelling house is your only or main residence.

If you’ve another dwelling house eligible for relief, for example a house or flat which you bought or rented as your home while absent, you will need to make a nomination in favour of the original dwelling house, if you want the period of absence to be treated as a period when that house was your main residence. See section about only or main residence.

The qualifying periods of absence are:

a. absences, for whatever reason, totalling not more than 3 years in all
b. absences during which you’re in employment and all your duties are carried on outside the UK
c. those absences totalling not more than 4 years when either:

• the distance from your place of work prevents you living at home
• your employer requires you to work away from home in order to do your job effectively

You will keep the exemption for absences b and c if you cannot return to your dwelling house afterwards because your existing job requires you to work away again. The absences at b and c will also apply if the employment was that of your spouse or civil partner.

Example 7

You bought a house in 1994 and used it as your only or main residence. In 1995 your employer required you to work abroad and you did not come back to the house until 2000. You lived in the house again as your only or main residence until you sold it in 2020. You are entitled to full relief.

Job-related accommodation

If you live in accommodation that is job-related and you also own a dwelling house that you intend to occupy as your only or main residence, the dwelling house you intend to occupy is treated as actually being occupied by you as a residence during the period in which you intend to occupy it, even if you never actually live there. This means that you may nominate that residence as your only or main residence and get relief on the whole or a part of the gain.See the paragraph about only or main residence. If your intention to live in the dwelling house ends, then the dwelling house is no longer treated as your residence.

Accommodation is job-related if it is exempt from Income Tax for the reasons set out in Living accommodation (Self Assessment helpsheet HS202).

This extension of Private Residence Relief also applies if you’re self-employed. The job-related accommodation must be provided by another person under the terms of a contract that requires you to live in the property and carry on a particular trade.

Garden or grounds

You’re entitled to relief if you dispose of land that you occupy as your garden or grounds, up to the permitted area, at the time of your disposal. The garden or grounds includes the buildings standing on that land. So, a building that is not part of your dwelling house can still qualify for relief if it’s within the permitted area of garden or grounds.

The garden or grounds will include any enclosed land surrounding or attached to your dwelling house and serving chiefly for ornament or recreation. However, not all land you hold with your dwelling house is treated as the garden or grounds of that residence. You’re not entitled to relief for land let or used for a business, for example, surrounding farm land. Similarly, land which at the date of disposal has been fenced or divided off from your garden for development, or has been developed or is in the course of development (for example, excavations under way for foundations, roads, services, and so on) will not qualify.

Permitted area

If your garden and grounds do not exceed half a hectare (which is a little over one acre), you’re entitled to relief for all of it. Look again at Example 1 above. The summer house was not part of the dwelling house. But the grounds do not exceed half a hectare and so the summer house, which stands in the grounds, will still attract relief.

If your garden and grounds exceed half a hectare, you may not be entitled to relief for all of it. The area for which you are entitled to relief is called the permitted area. It consists of the area that’s required for the reasonable enjoyment of your dwelling house as a home. The size and character of your dwelling house must be taken into account.

If your garden and grounds exceed half a hectare, and you have disposed of all or part of the garden and grounds, you should:

• enter details of the disposal and gain on the Capital Gains Tax summary
• explain in box 54 of the Capital Gains Tax summary pages why you think, if appropriate, all or part is exempt from Capital Gains Tax

We may ask for more details in these cases and the District Valuer will be asked to determine the size and location of the permitted area.

Letting Relief

If you only get partial relief because you’ve let some of the dwelling house as residential accommodation, you may be entitled to a further relief which is known as ‘lettings relief’. This further relief is due where:

• you sell a dwelling house which is, or has been, your only or main residence
• part of the dwelling house has at some time in your period of ownership been let as residential accommodation at the same time that another part of the dwelling house was your only or main residence

Letting relief does not apply where the whole of the dwelling house was let for a time.

The amount of relief is the lowest of:

• the amount of Private Residence Relief already calculated
• £40,000
• the amount of any chargeable gain you make because of the letting

Example 8

You let 60% of your house as residential accommodation and occupied 40% as your home. You made a gain of £60,000 when you disposed of the property.

You are entitled to Private Residence Relief for 40% of the gain, which is £24,000. Your remaining gain is £36,000 and it all results from the letting.

The lowest of the 3 limits set out above is the amount of Private Residence Relief and so you are entitled to additional Letting Relief of £24,000. Your chargeable gain will be £12,000.

There is another example in the Capital Gains Tax Manual.

Calculating the gain where only partial relief is due

In summary, if:

• part of your home is used exclusively for business purposes, or you’ve let part of your home, split the gain between the business part or the let part, which is chargeable, and your own living accommodation, which is exempt
• you have not always lived in your home, other than allowed periods of absence, multiply the total gain by a fraction equal to the period you actually lived in the dwelling house plus any allowed periods of absence plus any part of the final 9 months not covered by actual occupation or allowed period of absence, divided by the period of ownership – that part of the gain will be exempt
• you’ve had more than one home, decide whether or not the home you’ve sold has ever been your only or main home (a question of fact) or has been nominated at any time as your main home – multiply the total gain by a fraction representing the periods during which the dwelling house was your only or main home plus the final 9 months, divided by the period of ownership – that part of the gain will be exempt
• you’ve let part of your home, do the calculations as shown the letting relief section and add the lowest figure to the relief you’re already getting for your home as calculated above
• you are selling land which formed part of your garden (provided that you’re not selling the land after selling your home, and provided the land has not been divided off from your garden or developed in some way, in which case no relief is due) you will need to decide if any or all of the land sold is within the permitted area – if all of the land is within the permitted area, the gain will be exempt – if only part of the land is within the permitted area, then you will have to split the gain between the land which is inside the permitted area, which is exempt, and the land outside, which is chargeable

Residence provided for a dependent relative

In addition to the relief that may be due on disposal of your own residence, you may also be entitled to relief when you dispose of a residence which you’ve provided for a dependent relative. This relief only applies if you acquired the residence before 6 April 1988 and certain additional conditions were met. The conditions for relief are detailed in the Capital Gains Tax Manual.

Private Residence Relief on the disposal of settled property

The trustees of a settlement may claim relief (see how to claim relief) if they dispose of the only or main residence of a person entitled to occupy that residence under the terms of the settlement. This is provided that, in calculating the amount of the gain arising on the disposal that would be a chargeable gain if the relief did not exist, no account would have to be taken of any Gift Hold-Over Relief obtained under section 260 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992 by any person for any earlier disposal.

Special transitional rules that may allow some Private Residence Relief to be claimed by the trustees apply where Gift Hold-Over Relief is obtained for a transfer to the trustees which was made before 10 December 2003. Ask us if you need more information. For advice on how this relates to your own circumstances, talk to your tax adviser.

Personal representatives

Personal representatives who dispose of the only or main residence of one or more legatees during the administration period may claim relief (see how to claim relief) if the legatee or legatees in question would be entitled to at least 75% of the proceeds of the disposal of the property (assuming that none of the proceeds are needed to meet any liabilities of the deceased person’s estate). Ask us if you need more information. For advice on how this relates to your own circumstances, contact your tax adviser.

How to claim relief

In your computation of the gain on any relevant disposal included with the Capital Gains Tax summary, either in box 54 or in your attached computation, write that ‘Private Residence Relief is claimed’ and state the amount of relief claimed. In addition, enter code PRR (where Lettings Relief does not apply) or LET (where Lettings Relief does apply) in box 8.

Contact

For more information about online forms, phone numbers and addresses contact Self Assessment: general enquiries.