Use our UK Finance guide and learn by experience. We outline pitfalls so that you don't have to learn the hard way, as many of us often do.
Property Articles
Selling your home
How To Sell
Unless you're richer than Croesus, before you can move house you’ll need to sell the place you currently call home. How easy this will prove depends on factors that are, by and large, completely out of your control.
Buying a property guide
There comes a time in most people's lives when they decide to take the property plunge. Perhaps you've reached the point where you want a place of your own; or perhaps you've been renting and had enough of paying someone else's mortgage.
House Buying Tips – Buying a New Home
Looking for real estate can be a daunting task for even the most seasoned home hunter. Rest assured though, it doesn't have to be as difficult as it sometimes seems. Putting to good use a few handy tips will soon put you in the position of a home owner: investing your money instead of paying rent to someone else.
Capital Gains Tax - Periods of Absence
A main residence can in some cases continue to be exempt from capital gains tax even when it ceases to be a main residence, so long as no other main residence is held. This can happen during: Periods of absence not longer than three years ; Periods of absence where the owner worked overseas; Periods of absence not exceeding four years where the owner was forced for job-related reasons to find other accommodation.
Capital Gains Tax Exemption - Calculating the Extent
If a property has been a main residence as well as having been, at some time a secondary residence, or rented out from time to time, and a gain is made on the disposal of the property, then the property will be said to have been exempt for a period of the ownership and the capital gains tax applicable to the profit made will have to be allocated accordingly. Also, for the last three years of ownership (36 months), the property is treated by the real estate capital gains tax laws as if it were a main residence, even though it may not have been. So, for a property owned for eight years, lived in for three and let out for five, capital gains tax would only be applicable to two years of ownership. 3yrs occupancy + 3yrs exemption(36mnths) = 6yrs. 8yrs ownership - 6yrs = 2yrs. i.e. The capital gain made on the disposal of the property would be multiplied by 2/8 to arrive at a final figure.
