Stamp duty relief when a property trader buys a relocating employee’s home
Property trader relief after a job move
A qualifying property trader may be exempt from SDLT when buying a seller’s former main home because the seller must relocate for work.
- Every condition in Schedule 6A paragraph 6 must be met.
- Land above the permitted area can lead to partial relief instead.
- Later refurbishment, letting or occupation can withdraw relief.
Scroll down for the full analysis.
Read the original guidance here:
Stamp duty relief when a property trader buys a relocating employee’s home
Stamp duty relief when a property trader buys a relocating employee’s home
A specialist property business may pay no stamp duty when it buys someone’s home because they must move for work. This relief is not available merely because the seller has taken a new job or faces a long commute; the statutory conditions must also link the sale to a qualifying relocation. They must be met.
What this rule is about
Work moves sometimes force quick home sales. A business that buys and sells homes may step in and buy it. Schedule 6A provides relief for that situation, but the facts must fit closely.
To qualify, the buyer must be a “property trader” in the legal sense. It must be a company, an LLP, or a partnership made up only of companies or LLPs, and it must carry on a business of buying and selling homes.
An individual investor cannot use this relief. Nor can every company that happens to buy a house.
What the official source says
HMRC’s manual says that a qualifying property trader’s purchase can be exempt from SDLT if all the conditions are met. Although the manual is HMRC guidance, it is not the law. Schedule 6A contains the conditions themselves.
- For the relief to apply, the buyer’s business must include buying homes from people who move because of a job relocation.
- A seller must have lived in the home as their only or main home at some point in the two years before the purchase.
- That person’s job relocation must explain their home move.
- The amount paid must not be more than the home’s market value.
- At purchase, the buyer must not intend to spend more than the allowed amount on refurbishment.
- At purchase, the buyer must not intend to let the home or allow its principals, employees, or connected people to live there.
- The land bought must not be more than the permitted area.
A job relocation can arise when the person starts with a new employer, their duties change, or their normal workplace changes. The move must be wholly or mainly to let them live within a reasonable daily travelling distance of the new workplace.
That test has a second part: the old home must not be within a reasonable daily travelling distance of that workplace. A preference for a shorter commute is not enough.
- The new workplace is where the person normally works after the move.
- A prospective workplace can count where the person is about to start the job.
- The permitted area normally includes the home and its garden or grounds up to 0.5 hectare.
- Size and character matter. Extra land can qualify for reasonable enjoyment.
What this means in practice
If every condition is met, the purchase is exempt from SDLT. The business should not treat this as a general discount for buying homes from relocating staff. A defined type of business and a defined reason for the seller’s move limit the relief.
Land often causes trouble. If the purchase includes more land than the permitted area, full relief fails. That does not always mean the whole relief is lost.
Instead, partial relief may be available if all the other conditions are met. For partial relief, work out SDLT by taking the total market value of the home and land and subtracting the market value of the permitted area. That difference is taxable.
- Use market values for this calculation, not simply the price in the contract.
- Keep a valuation that separates the permitted area from any extra land.
- Do not assume that separate title numbers decide the question by themselves.
- Check what land was genuinely occupied and enjoyed with the home.
The relief can also be withdrawn later. People can miss this part after completion.
- Relief is withdrawn if the business spends more than the permitted refurbishment amount.
- The permitted amount is the greater of £10,000 and 5% of the purchase price, capped at £20,000.
- Relief is withdrawn if the business grants a lease or licence of the home.
- It is also withdrawn if a principal, employee, or a connected person occupies it.
- The rule permits a lease or licence back to the seller for no more than six months.
How to analyse it
Start with the buyer. Then test the seller’s move. Only after that should you deal with price, land and the plans for the property.
- Is the buyer legally a property trader, and does its business include these relocation purchases?
- In the two years before the sale, did the seller use the property as their only or main home?
- What changed at work: employer, duties, or normal workplace?
- Was the move mainly to bring the seller within reasonable daily travelling distance?
- Was the former home outside reasonable daily travelling distance of the new workplace?
- Did the price exceed market value?
- How much land did the purchase include, and what evidence supports the permitted area?
- What refurbishment, letting and occupation was intended at completion?
Example
Priya moves to a new role in another city. Her former home is now outside a reasonable daily travelling distance from the place where she will normally work. A qualifying property-trading company buys it for £500,000, its market value. Priya lived there during the previous two years.
The company meets the business, relocation and price tests. It plans only safety work and no letting. If the land is within the permitted area, the purchase is exempt from SDLT.
Now change one fact. The whole property is valued at £600,000, but the permitted area is valued at £500,000. If all other conditions are met, SDLT is worked out on £100,000: £600,000 less £500,000. This is partial relief, not full relief.
Why this can be difficult in practice
No fixed mileage applies under this rule. The realistic answer can depend on the job’s location and hours, transport links, and the travel options available when the move happened.
You might think a large garden always counts. It does not automatically. The question is whether the land was occupied and enjoyed with the home, and whether any area above 0.5 hectare was needed for its reasonable enjoyment.
- Do not rely only on the seller saying that a move was work-related.
- Do not confuse essential repairs or safety work with value-enhancing refurbishment.
- Do not overlook a planned short-term let, even if it never seems central to the purchase.
- Do not assume an informal arrangement avoids the rules on occupation or a licence.
- Keep records made at the time, rather than building an explanation later.
Key takeaways
- This is a strict SDLT relief for qualifying property-trading businesses.
- The seller’s work move and former main-home use both need evidence.
- Extra land may allow partial relief, but later use can withdraw it.
Technical analysis
For advisers, and for anyone who wants to check the law behind this page. You do not need this section to understand the guidance above.
Legislation
- FA 2003 Schedule 6A para 6 — relief for property traders buying homes after job moves (provision not found on legislation.gov.uk)
- FA 2003 Schedule 6A para 7 — meaning of home and permitted land area (provision not found on legislation.gov.uk)
- FA 2003 Schedule 6A para 8 — which businesses count as property traders (provision not found on legislation.gov.uk)
- FA 2003 Schedule 6A para 9 — refurbishment limits and permitted spending amount (provision not found on legislation.gov.uk)
- FA 2003 Schedule 6A para 11 — events that withdraw the claimed relief (provision not found on legislation.gov.uk)
Official guidance
The pages below are HMRC’s guidance. Guidance is not law. It sets out how HMRC reads the legislation, and it is not binding on you, on a tribunal or on a court. Where guidance and the legislation differ, the legislation wins. HMRC can also change or withdraw guidance, and it may not cover your facts.
Where this is not settled
- What is a reasonable daily travelling distance depends on the person’s job, travel options and the facts at the time.
- Whether land is garden or grounds, and whether a larger area is needed for reasonable enjoyment of the home, can be fact-sensitive.
- The available statutory text is current only to 17 November 2025. Transactions after that date need a check against the current legislation.
Evidence you would need
This kind of case is decided on the facts of the individual property. These are the records that usually settle it, and the ones an adviser would ask you for.
- Signed contract, transfer and completion statement — who bought the home, the completion date and the amount paid
- Land Registry title and filed plan — the land included in the purchase and each legal parcel
- Measured site plan or survey — the total area and the area claimed as garden or grounds
- Independent market valuation at the purchase date — whether the price exceeded market value and supports any partial calculation
- Council tax records, utility bills and electoral registration — whether the seller used the home as their main or only home within two years
- Employment offer, contract, transfer letter or job-change records — the new employer, changed duties or changed normal workplace
- Records of the former and new workplaces, working pattern and travel routes — why the move was needed and whether daily travel was reasonable
- Company, LLP or partnership records and business accounts — that the buyer fits the legal definition and carries on the required business
- Refurbishment budgets, invoices, leases, licences and occupation records — whether a later event has withdrawn the relief
Explore this with an AI
Readers often want to test their own situation. Copy the prompt below into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini. It hands the model the actual legislation for this page rather than letting it answer from memory, and tells it to be explicit about what is uncertain. What comes back is information, not advice – check it against the links above.
I am researching UK Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT), which applies in England and Northern Ireland. MY QUESTION Stamp duty relief when a property trader buys a relocating employee’s home [Replace this with your own situation: what you are buying, the price, the dates, who the buyer is, and what you plan to do with the property.] THE LAW THIS TURNS ON - FA 2003 Schedule 6A para 6 - relief for property traders buying homes after job moves https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/14/schedule/6A/paragraph/6/2025-11-17 - FA 2003 Schedule 6A para 7 - meaning of home and permitted land area https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/14/schedule/6A/paragraph/7/2025-11-17 - FA 2003 Schedule 6A para 8 - which businesses count as property traders https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/14/schedule/6A/paragraph/8/2025-11-17 - FA 2003 Schedule 6A para 9 - refurbishment limits and permitted spending amount https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/14/schedule/6A/paragraph/9/2025-11-17 - FA 2003 Schedule 6A para 11 - events that withdraw the claimed relief https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/14/schedule/6A/paragraph/11/2025-11-17 HMRC's guidance page on this topic (guidance, not law): https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/stamp-duty-land-tax-manual/sdltm21070 HOW I WANT YOU TO ANSWER 1. Work from the legislation above. Read it before answering. HMRC guidance is HMRC's view of the law, not the law, and does not bind a tribunal or a court. 2. Tell me what the rule actually requires, in plain English. 3. Tell me which facts decide the answer, and which facts would change it. 4. Tell me what evidence I would need to support the position. 5. Be explicit about anything unsettled or fact-sensitive. Do not guess. 6. Your training data has a cutoff and SDLT rates and reliefs change at fiscal events. Say so if you are not sure the law is current. POINTS ALREADY KNOWN TO BE UNCERTAIN ON THIS TOPIC - What is a reasonable daily travelling distance depends on the person's job, travel options and the facts at the time. - Whether land is garden or grounds, and whether a larger area is needed for reasonable enjoyment of the home, can be fact-sensitive. - The available statutory text is current only to 17 November 2025. Transactions after that date need a check against the current legislation. Do not give me a conclusion you cannot support from the provisions above.
Legislation links show Finance Act 2003 as it stood on 2025-11-17. The law may have changed since, and the rules that apply are those in force on the date of your transaction. The official guidance this page is based on is here.
This page was last updated on 1 September 2026
Useful article? You may find it helpful to read the original guidance here: Stamp duty relief when a property trader buys a relocating employee’s home
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