Possible capital gains tax on sale of a second home

Published on: 7 April 2025

• Tax/legal

With rising real estate prices, you can realize a nice capital gain on the possible sale of your second home. Just keep in mind the capital gains tax on real estate!

Capital gains tax on real estate

Within personal income tax, there are two types of capital gains tax on real estate:

1. Gain tax on sale of building land
   Are you selling a piece of building land? Then you must take into account a possible capital gains tax within eight years after the purchase. If the capital gain is realized within the first five years after the purchase, you must pay 33% taxes on it. Between the fifth and eighth year, the capital gains tax is 16.5%. Do you sell the building land after eight years? Then any capital gain is tax-free.
2. Capital gains tax on sale of a property
   Are you selling a property? Here the term for capital gains tax is five years. If the sale takes place after five years, you do not have to pay capital gains tax. The tax rate on capital gains on a property is 16.5%, with the exception of capital gains on your own home. You never have to pay taxes on this. Thus, capital gains tax only applies when selling a second home or an income property.

How much is the taxable capital gain? This is not simply the difference between the purchase and sale price. The tax authorities make a number of corrections to this. Concretely, this means that you only have to pay capital gains tax in exceptional cases, for example when you sell your second home very quickly with a significant capital gain.

More information about a second home and everything that comes with it? Come to one of our expos or contact us.