You have 60 days from completion to report the disposal and pay the tax — not until the following January. The rates are 18% within the basic rate band and 24% above it, the annual exempt amount is £3,000, and if you ever lived in the property the final nine months of ownership are relieved automatically.
Guide · Updated August 2026
Capital gains tax on residential property is 18% on gains falling within the basic rate band and 24% above it. Simple enough now, but the route to those numbers ran through two separate changes in the same tax year, and confusing them produces the wrong answer on any disposal in 2024/25.
| Disposal date | Residential property | Other assets |
|---|---|---|
| 6 April 2024 – 29 October 2024 | 18% / 24% | 10% / 20% |
| 30 October 2024 onwards | 18% / 24% | 18% / 24% |
The consequence is worth stating plainly, because a lot of older commentary assumes otherwise: since 30 October 2024 there is no rate advantage or penalty to residential property. It is taxed like everything else.
The annual exempt amount is £3,000 for individuals and personal representatives and £1,500 for trustees. It has been at that level for 2024/25, 2025/26 and 2026/27 without change.
It is per person, not per property, and it does not carry forward. For a property held jointly by a couple, that is £6,000 between them in the year of sale — one of the few things that genuinely improves by holding jointly.
The gain is the proceeds less the acquisition cost, the incidental costs of buying and selling, and any capital improvements made along the way. Improvements are the reason the repair-or-improvement line matters so much during the life of the letting: spending that was not deductible against rental profit because it was capital is exactly the spending that reduces the gain here — provided you can still evidence it.
If the property was ever your home, part of the gain is relieved. Full relief applies where all of these hold: it is your only home; you lived in it as your main home throughout the period you owned it; no part was let out (lodgers excepted); no part was used exclusively for business; the grounds including buildings are under 5,000 square metres; and it was not bought in order to make a gain.
A let property fails that test, so what most landlords get is partial relief covering the period of occupation plus the final period exemption. That final period is nine months for disposals on or after 6 April 2020. It was 18 months between 6 April 2014 and 5 April 2020, and 36 months before that, so anything you read mentioning 18 or 36 months is about an older disposal. The statutory basis is section 223(1), (2), (5) and (6) TCGA 1992.
The nine months applies automatically if the dwelling was your only or main residence at any point during ownership. It does not have to be the most recent period, and you do not have to claim it.
A landlord buys a house in July 2010 for £158,000, with £2,600 of purchase costs. He lives in it as his only home for the first six years, then lets it. He spends £14,000 on an extension while it is let, and sells it in June 2026 for £372,000 with £5,400 of selling costs.
Gain: £372,000 − £158,000 − £2,600 − £14,000 − £5,400 = £192,000.
Ownership: 16 years, or 192 months. The relieved period is the 72 months of occupation plus the final 9 months = 81 months. Private Residence Relief is 81/192 of £192,000 = £81,000.
Chargeable gain is £192,000 − £81,000 = £111,000, less the £3,000 annual exempt amount = £108,000. If it all falls above the basic rate band, the tax at 24% is £25,920.
Completion on 30 June 2026 makes the report and payment deadline 29 August 2026. Figures are illustrative.
18% applies to gains falling within the basic rate band and 24% above it, and the band in question is whatever is left of it after your income. On 2026/27 figures the personal allowance is £12,570 and the basic rate band is £37,700.
Take the same £108,000 chargeable gain, but the landlord's taxable income for the year is £41,000. After the personal allowance that is £28,430 of taxable income, leaving £9,270 of the basic rate band unused.
So £9,270 of the gain is taxed at 18% = £1,668.60, and the remaining £98,730 at 24% = £23,695.20. Total £25,363.80, against £25,920 if the whole gain had fallen in the higher band. Figures are illustrative.
For completions on or after 27 October 2021 you must report the disposal and pay the tax within 60 days of completion. The window was 30 days for completions from 6 April 2020, so older guidance showing 30 days is out of date — but 60 days is still short, and it runs from completion rather than from the end of the tax year.
This is the deadline landlords miss most often, because Self Assessment has trained everyone to think in Januarys. The gain still goes on the tax return as well: the 60-day return is a payment on account of the final liability, not a substitute for it. Diarise it at exchange rather than at completion, and read the landlord tax calendar for the other dates in the year.
If you are not UK resident you must report all disposals of UK property or land — including where you have no tax to pay, and including where you have made a loss. Non-resident capital gains tax was extended to all UK property and land from 6 April 2019. Interest and penalties apply for late reporting, and the obligation exists whether or not anything is owed. See our non-resident landlord page.
BADR has been rising. The rate was 10% to 5 April 2025, 14% from 6 April 2025, and 18% from 6 April 2026. At 18% it now matches the lower main rate, so it saves 6 percentage points against 24% rather than the 14 it once did.
For landlords the more important point is availability. The one route into BADR that ordinary property letting had was the furnished holiday lettings regime, and that has closed: BADR is not available where there is a disposal of the whole or part of an FHL business on or after 6 April 2025. Rollover relief under section 152 TCGA and loans to traders relief under section 253 went the same way, and gift holdover relief with them.
There is also an anti-forestalling rule running from 6 March 2024 under paragraph 14 of Schedule 5 to the Finance Act 2025. Where a contract was made on or after 6 March 2024 and the disposal takes place on or after 6 April 2025, rollover, gift and BADR relief are denied unless the claim includes a statement that the conditions are met — genuine commercial reasons, and unconnected parties. Disposals made before 6 April 2025 keep the reliefs even where the claim or the completion comes later, under paragraph 13(2) of the same Schedule.
We compute the gain, apply Private Residence Relief where it is due, file the 60-day return and then carry the disposal through to the Self Assessment return so the two agree. Where a sale is planned rather than sudden, we cost it before exchange so nothing arrives as a surprise. See the capital gains service, or get a fixed-fee quote. This is information about how the tax works, not advice on whether to sell.
What has changed in landlord tax, the dates coming up, and one number worth checking on your own portfolio.
18% on gains falling within the basic rate band and 24% above it. Two separate changes produced those figures and it is worth keeping them apart. On 6 April 2024 the higher rate on residential property fell from 28% to 24%. Then on 30 October 2024 the main rates for other assets rose from 10% and 20% to 18% and 24%, aligning everything with the residential rates. Since that date residential property carries neither a rate advantage nor a rate penalty. Which rate applies to your gain depends on how much of the basic rate band is left after your income for the year, so a single gain can be taxed at both rates.
Sixty days from completion, for completions on or after 27 October 2021. The window was 30 days for completions from 6 April 2020, so guidance still showing 30 days is out of date, but 60 days is short and it runs from completion rather than from the end of the tax year. This is the deadline landlords miss most often, because Self Assessment trains everyone to think in Januarys. The 60-day return is a payment on account: the disposal still has to be reported on your tax return afterwards, and the two need to agree. The practical fix is to diarise the deadline at exchange rather than at completion.
Yes. Private Residence Relief covers the period the property was your only or main residence, and it adds a final period exemption of nine months for disposals on or after 6 April 2020 under section 223(1), (2), (5) and (6) TCGA 1992. That nine months applies automatically if the dwelling was your only or main residence at any point during ownership, so you do not have to claim it and it does not have to be the most recent period. It was 18 months between 6 April 2014 and 5 April 2020 and 36 months before that, so older guidance is about older disposals. The relief is apportioned by months of ownership.
£3,000 for individuals and personal representatives, and £1,500 for trustees. It has stayed at that level across 2024/25, 2025/26 and 2026/27, so there is no year-on-year movement to plan around. It is an allowance per person rather than per property and it cannot be carried forward, so an unused amount is simply lost at the end of the tax year. For a couple who own a property jointly, that is £6,000 of gain covered between them in the year of sale, which is one of the genuine advantages of joint ownership. A company has no annual exempt amount at all, which is a real cost of holding property through one.
Yes, and the reporting obligation is wider than the tax. Non-resident capital gains tax was extended to all UK property and land from 6 April 2019, so it is no longer limited to residential property. A non-resident must report every disposal of UK property or land, including where there is no tax to pay on the disposal and including where the disposal made a loss. That catches people who assume no liability means no filing. Interest and penalties apply for late reporting, and the 60-day window applies here too. If you let UK property from abroad, the Non-Resident Landlord Scheme sits alongside this and has its own quarterly deadlines.
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