Work out the Capital Gains Tax (CGT) due when you sell a second home, buy-to-let or other investment property in the UK. This calculator does not apply to your main home — selling the house you actually live in is usually covered by Private Residence Relief and is CGT-free. It's for properties you own but don't live in full-time: rental properties, holiday homes, inherited property you didn't move into, or a home that was only your main residence for part of the time you owned it.
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You are working out the Capital Gains Tax due on selling a property that is not covered by full Private Residence Relief — for example a second home, a buy-to-let, an inherited property, or a home you only lived in for part of the time you owned it. CGT is charged on the gain (the increase in value), not the full sale price.
The calculator works out your gain (sale price minus purchase price minus allowable costs), applies any Private Residence Relief for months you lived there as your main home (plus an automatic final-9-months exemption), deducts your £3,000 Annual Exempt Amount, then splits the remaining taxable gain across the 18% basic rate and 24% higher rate bands depending on how much of your basic-rate Income Tax band is left after your other income.
Your calculation summary will appear here once you enter your figures.
This is an estimate only. Capital Gains Tax has many reliefs and edge cases this calculator does not model in full — including Letting Relief, mixed-use periods, multiple properties, jointly-owned shares, and losses carried forward from other years. Always get advice from a qualified accountant or tax adviser before relying on this figure. If CGT is due, you must report and pay it to HMRC within 60 days of completion for UK residential property — missing this deadline can mean penalties and interest.
Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is a tax on the profit — the "gain" — you make when you sell (or otherwise dispose of) a property that has gone up in value. It's not a tax on the full amount you sell for; it's only charged on the increase between what you paid and what you sold for, after deducting certain costs. You only pay it when you actually sell, gift, or otherwise dispose of the property — not while you still own it.
For UK residential property, CGT has its own set of rates, separate from the rates that apply to shares, funds or other assets, and its own fast 60-day reporting deadline. This page covers UK residential property only.
If a property has been your only or main home for the entire time you've owned it, Private Residence Relief (PRR) normally exempts the whole gain from CGT automatically — you don't even need to claim it in most cases. This is why selling the house you actually live in is, for the vast majority of people, completely tax-free. PRR can be restricted if you've used part of the home exclusively for business, if the garden or grounds exceed a certain size, or if you've let out part of the property — get advice if any of these apply to you.
CGT is due on any UK residential property that isn't fully covered by PRR, including: a second home or holiday home; a buy-to-let or other rental investment property; a property you inherited and didn't move into (CGT applies to the growth in value since you inherited it, not since the original owner bought it); and a property that was gifted to you, or that you gift to someone else (gifts to anyone other than a spouse or civil partner are treated as a disposal at market value, even though no money changes hands).
Every individual gets a tax-free Annual Exempt Amount (AEA) each tax year — for 2026/27 this is £3,000. It's deducted from your total gains (across all assets, not just property) before any CGT is calculated. If you've already used some or all of your AEA against other gains this tax year, you'll have less — or none — left to use against this property sale, which is why the calculator asks. Unlike some allowances, the AEA cannot be carried forward if you don't use it.
For 2026/27, CGT on residential property is charged at 18% on the portion of your taxable gain that falls within your remaining basic-rate Income Tax band, and 24% on anything above that. The basic-rate band is £37,700 of taxable income above your Personal Allowance (£12,570). Your gain "stacks" on top of your other taxable income for the year — so if your income already uses up some or all of the basic-rate band, more (or all) of your gain is taxed at 24%. Higher-rate and additional-rate taxpayers pay 24% on the entire taxable gain.
If the property was your main home for only part of the time you owned it, you get PRR pro-rated to the months you lived there as a fraction of total months owned. On top of that, HMRC always treats the final 9 months of ownership as exempt, provided it was your main home at some point — even if you'd already moved out and it was being rented or left empty. This calculator applies both: your actual months lived in, plus up to 9 further exempt months at the end (capped so the total never exceeds the months you actually owned it).
If CGT is due on a UK residential property sale, you must report it to HMRC and pay the tax within 60 days of the completion date, using HMRC's online "Report and pay Capital Gains Tax on UK property" service. This is separate from, and much faster than, your annual Self Assessment return — you can't simply wait until the following January. You'll still need to include the disposal on your Self Assessment return later, but the tax itself is due within the 60-day window.
You can deduct from your gain: the costs of buying and selling, such as stamp duty, legal/conveyancing fees, estate agent or auctioneer fees, and survey costs; and the cost of capital improvements made while you owned it, such as an extension, a loft conversion, or adding a garage — works that genuinely add value, not routine repairs, redecorating or maintenance. Mortgage interest, insurance, and letting agent management fees are not deductible against CGT (though some may be deductible against rental income tax instead — see our Section 24 Landlord Tax Calculator for how mortgage interest relief now works for landlords).
Each spouse or civil partner has their own £3,000 Annual Exempt Amount and their own basic-rate band. Assets — including property — can be transferred between spouses or civil partners who live together without triggering CGT at the point of transfer. A common and entirely legitimate planning step is to transfer part-ownership of a property to a spouse before selling, so the gain is split across two AEAs and two sets of tax bands, potentially reducing the total household CGT bill.
Say you bought a buy-to-let flat for £150,000 and sold it for £220,000, with £5,000 of allowable costs (legal fees, stamp duty, and a replacement kitchen) — a strategy similar to the refurbish-and-refinance approach modelled in our BRRR Calculator. Your gain is £220,000 − £150,000 − £5,000 = £65,000. You've not used your AEA elsewhere, so £3,000 is deducted, leaving a taxable gain of £62,000. If your other taxable income for the year is £20,000, you have £17,700 of basic-rate band left (£37,700 − £20,000). £17,700 of the gain is taxed at 18% (£3,186) and the remaining £44,300 at 24% (£10,632) — a total CGT bill of £13,818.
The most common and costly mistake is simply missing the 60-day reporting deadline — HMRC can charge an automatic late-filing penalty plus further penalties at 6 and 12 months, on top of daily interest on any unpaid tax. Other frequent errors include forgetting to deduct allowable costs, not claiming PRR for a period the property genuinely was a main home, overlooking Letting Relief where it still applies, and not accounting for a spouse's share of ownership and allowances before a joint sale.
Letting Relief used to let landlords who had once lived in a property claim extra relief for periods it was let out. Since April 2020 it has been drastically cut back: it now only applies if you were living in the property at the same time as your tenant (for example, renting out a room while you still lived there) — it no longer applies to a property you moved out of and let out afterwards. Most landlords selling a former rental home can no longer claim it, so this calculator does not include it; check with an adviser if you think you might qualify.
If you inherit a property, there's no CGT at the point of inheritance. Your "base cost" for CGT purposes becomes the property's market value at the date of death (its probate value), not what the original owner paid for it. CGT then only applies to any further growth in value between inheriting it and selling it — so if you sell soon after probate for close to the probate value, there may be little or no gain to tax.
Legitimate ways to reduce what you owe include: making full use of your £3,000 Annual Exempt Amount (and your spouse's, if applicable); claiming every allowable cost you're entitled to; offsetting capital losses from other asset sales in the same or earlier tax years; transferring part-ownership to a spouse or civil partner before the sale completes; and, where you have some control over timing, completing the sale in a tax year where your other taxable income is lower, leaving more of your basic-rate band available at 18% rather than 24%.
The rates, allowances and reporting rules used in this calculator are taken directly from HMRC and gov.uk guidance, re-checked against the live pages below:
If you're weighing up a sale against the rest of your portfolio, these related calculators may help: