Last updated September 2026Figures: 2026/27, sourced from GOV.UK
Work out your private residence relief
Private Residence Relief · 2026/27
How much of your gain does private residence relief cover?
If a property was your main home for part of the time you owned it, relief covers that share of the gain, taken together with the last nine months of ownership. Enter the figures to see what is left to tax. Free, and no email required.
£
The gain, not the sale price: sale price less what you paid, less buying and selling costs, less capital improvements.£
Salary, pension, rental profit and other income, before the £12,570 personal allowance (2026/27) is taken off. Enter 0 if you had none.Every period you actually lived there as your only or main home, added together, in whole months. Enter 0 if it never was.
Completion of your purchase to completion of your sale, in whole months. Ownership before 31 March 1982 does not count, so start from that date if you owned it earlier.
Enter 0 if it was still your main home on the day the sale completed. This decides how much of the last nine months is extra relief, rather than time you were already living there.
Only counts where the home was being built, renovated, redecorated or altered, or you sold your previous main home during that time, nobody else lived there, and you moved in within 24 months of buying. Leave at 0 otherwise.
2026/27 figures from GOV.UK: capital gains tax at 18% on the part of the taxable gain that falls within your remaining basic rate band and 24% above it, basic rate band £37,700 (2026/27), personal allowance £12,570 (2026/27) which tapers away above income of £100,000 (2026/27) and is applied here, annual exempt amount £3,000 (2026/27). Relief covers the months the property was your only or main residence taken together with the last nine months of ownership, or 36 months where the disabled or care home box is ticked, capped at the total months owned. Those final months are part of the same period, not an extra block added on top, and they only count if the property was your only or main residence at some point. Method and worked examples: HMRC helpsheet HS283. Not modelled: lettings relief; periods of absence that still qualify under the statutory rules, such as working outside the UK or up to four years living away from home for work; business use of part of the property; grounds over half a hectare; second homes where a nomination has been made; capital losses brought forward; income tax reliefs other than the personal allowance, and pension or gift aid payments that extend your basic rate band; non-resident sellers, who have their own rules; and occupation in more than one block, because the calculator treats your months of residence as a single stretch ending when you last moved out, so a short final spell after a middle absence is under relieved here. Joint owners should enter their own share. This is an estimate for general information, not advice. Your position depends on your circumstances. Speak to us before acting.
Figures checked 5 September 2026.
How to use it
- Enter the gain, not the sale price. The gain is the sale price less what you paid, less buying and selling costs, less capital improvements.
- Enter your income before tax for the tax year. The calculator takes off the personal allowance itself to find your taxable income, because that is the figure the 18% and 24% rates (2026/27) are measured against.
- Count the months the property was your only or main residence. Time when it was let out or empty does not count, apart from the last nine months.
- Enter the total months you owned it, from completion to completion.
- Enter the months between moving out and the sale completing. Enter 0 if you were still living there on completion day. This is what decides how much of the last nine months adds anything.
- Enter any months at the start before you moved in, but only where the home was being built or renovated, or you sold your previous main home during that time.
- Tick the boxes that apply, then press calculate.
- Nothing you type leaves your browser.
How the relief is worked out
Private residence relief is a fraction, not a fixed sum. It is the gain multiplied by the qualifying months over the total months of ownership.
Qualifying months are the months it was actually your only or main home, taken together with the last nine months of ownership. The last nine months always qualify whatever the property was used for then, as long as it was your only or main home at some point. They are part of the same period, not an extra nine months added on the end. So if you were still living there when the sale completed, and had lived there for at least nine months, those nine months are already inside the time you lived there and add nothing further. If you moved out first, or lived there for less than nine months, the months of that final period which fall outside your time in the property are extra relief, up to nine months of them.
HMRC's own example makes the point. A house bought in January 2009 and sold in January 2025 is owned for 192 months. The owner lived there throughout apart from nine months in 2011. Relief is 183 of 192 months, not 192 of 192, because the final nine months were months the owner was living there anyway.
| Situation, on a £120,000 gain over 10 years | Relief | Gain left to tax |
|---|---|---|
| Main home throughout | £120,000 | Nil |
| Main home for 5 years, then let until the sale | £69,000 | £51,000 |
| Main home for 2 years, then let until the sale | £33,000 | £87,000 |
| Let for 2 years, then main home until the sale | £96,000 | £24,000 |
| Never lived in, buy to let throughout | Nil | £120,000 |
In the two rows where the property was let until the sale, the owner had moved out well before completion, so all nine of the final months are extra relief. In the fourth row the owner was still living there at completion and had been for eight years, so the final nine months are already counted in the 96 months of residence and add nothing.
The tax on what is left follows GOV.UK's method. Take the £3,000 annual exempt amount (2026/27) off the gain that is not relieved, work out your taxable income (your income after the £12,570 personal allowance for 2026/27, which reduces by £1 for every £2 of income over £100,000 for 2026/27), then charge the part of the gain that falls within the £37,700 basic rate band (2026/27) at 18% and the rest at 24%.
The final nine months only count if you lived there
A property that was never your only or main residence gets no relief at all, including no final nine months. The nine month rule extends relief for a home you did live in. It does not create relief for one you did not.
Where you did live there, but for less than nine months, the whole of the last nine months still qualifies, and the months you lived there sit inside that period rather than being added to it.
The final period is 36 months rather than nine where, at the time of the sale, you or your spouse or civil partner were disabled or a long term resident in a care home, and neither of you had an interest in any other home. Tick the box in the calculator if that applies.
What this does not cover
- Lettings relief, which since April 2020 only applies where you shared occupancy with the tenant
- Periods of absence that still qualify for relief under the statutory rules, which are not a concession: absences for any reason totalling up to three years, any period spent working outside the UK, and up to four years living away from home for work
- Part of the property used exclusively for business, which is excluded from relief
- Grounds over half a hectare, and second homes where a nomination has been made
- Capital losses brought forward
- Income tax reliefs other than the personal allowance, and pension or gift aid payments that extend your basic rate band
- Non-resident sellers, whose period of ownership and rebasing rules are different
- Occupation in more than one block. The calculator treats your months of residence as a single stretch ending when you last moved out, so a short final spell after a middle absence gets less relief here than the statute gives
The tapering of the personal allowance above income of £100,000 (2026/27) is applied by this calculator.
Common questions
Do I have to report this even if the relief covers everything?
If the whole gain is covered by private residence relief there is usually nothing to report. Where any capital gains tax is due on a UK residential property, it must be reported and paid within 60 days of completion.
Why does the calculator ask when I moved out?
Because the last nine months of ownership qualify as part of the same period of residence, not as an extra nine months on top. If you were living there when the sale completed, and had been for at least nine months, those months are already counted once. If you moved out two years before completion, nine of those 24 months qualify. Without knowing when you moved out, a calculator cannot tell the two cases apart, and adding nine months to both overstates the relief for anyone who was still living there.
Can a couple each claim the relief?
A married couple or civil partners can only have one main residence between them for this purpose. Each spouse computes their own share of the gain and their own relief on it.
What if I moved out and moved back in?
The qualifying months are added together, so two separate periods of occupation both count. Enter the total in the months of residence field, and put the months between the last time you moved out and the sale completing in the field below it. One limit to know about: the calculator treats those months as a single stretch, so if your last spell in the property was short and followed a long absence, the figure it gives is lower than the statutory answer. Speak to us for that case.
Does time before I owned it matter?
No. Ownership runs from completion of your purchase to completion of your sale, and only that period is used in the fraction. Ownership before 31 March 1982 is left out, so if you owned the property before then, count from that date.
