Buying a property as a home

If you are an individual buying a property to use as your home, BKL can offer home buying financial advice. You will benefit from an important exemption known as the Principal Private Residence relief (PPR).

This very valuable relief will allow you in most cases to sell your home free of UK capital gains tax.

In many cases, the relief is straightforward. But it can get more complex if there are periods when you have not lived in or let the property, or if you have more than one property that is used as a home. In this case, only one home can qualify as the PPR at a time.

With careful planning and use of the PPR election facility in these situations, the relief available on one or more homes can be maximised, often doubling up on reliefs.

Expensive homes acquired by companies and other entities

Special rules have been introduced to target perceived avoidance by wealthy foreigners buying property through offshore companies.

Although the rules are targeted at non-UK residents, it is important to appreciate that they apply also where a home is acquired, or is already owned, by a UK company. The rules do not apply to homes owned directly by individuals.

The rules apply to expensive homes acquired or owned by companies and other defined corporate type entities. An expensive home is one costing more than £500,000. The rules impose penal tax charges on the acquisition and an annual tax based on market value.