Legal & Tenure

Private Residence Relief Explained — How Your Main Home Escapes CGT

Private Residence Relief exempts the gain on your main home from Capital Gains Tax entirely, but the rules around periods of absence, partial use, and the final nine months are more nuanced than many sellers realise. This guide sets out exactly what qualifies and what does not.

Published: 1 Jan 2026 · Updated: 1 Mar 2026 · 6 min read

What Is Private Residence Relief?

Private Residence Relief (PRR) is the most valuable CGT relief available to property owners in the UK. It exempts the gain arising on a disposal of a dwelling that has been your only or main residence throughout the entire period of ownership. If the property qualifies fully, no CGT is payable — regardless of how large the gain is.

The relief is provided by sections 222–226 of the Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992. It applies automatically where the qualifying conditions are met; you do not need to make a formal claim unless HMRC enquires.

The Core Qualifying Conditions

For PRR to apply, the property must have been:

1. A **dwelling house** (or part of one)

2. Your **only or main residence** during the period of ownership

3. Used as a residence, not merely owned

"Residence" has its ordinary meaning: you must actually live there with some degree of permanence and continuity. Simply owning a property and spending occasional nights there is unlikely to establish it as your main residence.

Full Relief — Property Owned and Occupied Throughout

If you purchased a property, lived in it as your main home for the entire period of ownership, and sold it without ever renting it out or using it for any other purpose, you will receive full PRR and owe no CGT on the gain.

The Final Nine Months

Even where a property has not been your main residence for the whole period of ownership, the **final nine months of ownership are always treated as a qualifying period** — provided the property was your main residence at some point during your ownership. This gives sellers breathing room after they have moved out and before the sale completes.

This period was reduced from 36 months to 18 months in April 2014, and further reduced to nine months in April 2020. It remains at nine months for 2026/27.

Periods of Absence

Certain periods during which you were not living at the property can still qualify for PRR as "deemed occupation" periods, provided two conditions are met: (a) the property was your main residence both before and after the absence, and (b) you were not claiming PRR on another property during the absence.

The qualifying deemed occupation periods are:

Reason for absence	Maximum qualifying period
Any reason whatsoever	Up to 3 years in total
Required to work abroad	Unlimited (any duration)
Required to work in the UK in a location making daily commute unreasonable	Up to 4 years

These periods can be combined if the property is reoccupied between them.

Partial Relief — Mixed Periods of Occupation and Letting

Where a property has been your main residence for only part of the ownership period, PRR is apportioned. The gain is split between qualifying periods (main residence + deemed occupation + final nine months) and non-qualifying periods. Only the non-qualifying portion is chargeable.

**Example:** You owned a property for 10 years. It was your main home for the first six years, then rented out for four years (and you did not reoccupy before selling, so no deemed occupation applies). The final nine months of the four-year letting period count as a qualifying period.

Total ownership: 120 months
Qualifying period: 72 months (6 years) + 9 months final period = 81 months
Non-qualifying: 39 months
PRR fraction: 81/120 = 67.5%

67.5% of the gain is exempt; 32.5% is chargeable (less the annual exempt amount of £3,000).

Restricted Relief: Business Use and Letting

If part of your home has been used **exclusively** for business, that proportion of the gain will not qualify for PRR. Rooms used partly for business and partly for personal use (e.g. a home office used by the family too) are not generally treated as exclusively business use.

For periods when the property was let (wholly, not just a room), see our separate guide on [Letting Relief](/letting-relief-cgt-who-qualifies-now).

Two Homes: Which One Is Your Main Residence?

If you own two properties, only one at a time can be your main residence for PRR purposes. HMRC looks at the facts, but you can also make a **main residence nomination** to elect which property qualifies. See our dedicated guide on [main residence nominations](/main-residence-nomination-which-home-is-exempt) for the rules and the critical two-year election window.

Calculate Your Potential CGT

Use our [Capital Gains Tax Calculator](/capital-gains-tax-calculator) to model your position — you can input the qualifying and non-qualifying periods to see how PRR reduces your chargeable gain and the resulting tax.