Moving Back Home: What to Do With the Property You Own Abroad

Published on: August 26, 2026

Last verified: 26 August 2026. Residence rules, capital gains treatment and inbound regimes vary by country and change frequently; several rules described here changed within the last two years.

Quick answer:
Three dates decide everything: when you stop being tax resident where the property sits, when you become resident again at home, and how long you have owned it.
Reliefs tied to residence status expire when the status does. Reliefs tied to a holding period do not. Establish which type applies before you set a moving date.
Selling as a non-resident means withholding. Spain withholds 3 percent of the price, FIRPTA commonly 15 percent of the gross price in the US, and the UK requires a return and payment within 60 days of completion.
The country you return to is half the picture. The UK's four-year foreign income and gains regime, Spain's Modelo 720, and Canada's step-up in cost base on arrival all turn on your prior non-residence.
Currency usually moves the outcome more than tax. A 5 percent move on a €400,000 sale is €20,000, more than most of the planning will save.

Almost everything written about buying abroad is written for the outbound journey. Choosing the country, getting the visa, finding the lawyer, wiring the money. Very little is written for the return, and the return is common: contracts end, parents age, children reach school age, health changes, a marriage ends, a company relocates someone back.

If you own property in the country you are leaving, the return is a bigger financial decision than the purchase was. It involves a change of tax residence, a capital gains position that may have a deadline attached, reporting obligations in the country you are returning to, and a currency conversion that can move the outcome by more than the tax.

This guide sets out the four options, the timing questions that determine which is best, and the mechanics in the markets foreign owners most commonly hold.

The four options

Sell before you leave. Cleanest, and in several situations the only version that preserves a valuable relief.

Sell after you leave. Sometimes better for market timing, usually worse for tax, and always harder logistically.

Keep and let it. Turns a home into a business with obligations in two countries.

Keep it and use it. A second home, with running costs, a wealth or vacancy tax exposure in some countries, and a succession question attached.

Which one is right is rarely a matter of preference. It is usually decided by three dates: when you cease to be tax resident in the country where the property sits, when you become tax resident again at home, and how long you have owned the property.

The pivot: tax residence changes what is taxed

While you live abroad, your home country generally taxes you only on income arising there. The moment you become resident again, most countries switch you to worldwide taxation: rental income from the property abroad, and often gains on selling it, come into charge at home.

That switch is the reason timing matters. The same sale, executed six months apart, can be taxed by one country or by two.

The switch is rarely on a calendar year boundary. Residence rules use day counts, permanent homes, centres of vital interest and family location, and they can split a tax year. Establish the actual date you become resident again before you plan anything around it, because "I moved back in the spring" is not a tax position.

Timing the sale: the reliefs with clocks on them

Several of the most valuable reliefs are only available while you still hold a particular status. Selling one week too late can cost more than a year of rent.

Main residence relief usually depends on it having been your main residence. Once you move out and move home, the property becomes a second home in most systems, and the exemption starts to erode or ends outright. Some countries give a grace period for a former main residence that is genuinely on the market; some do not.

Australia is the clearest example of a hard cut-off. Foreign residents are not able to claim the CGT main residence exemption on disposals made while they are foreign residents, subject to narrow life-events exceptions. For an Australian who has been living abroad and owns a property in Australia, the sequencing question is stark and worth professional advice well in advance.

Some countries have a holding-period exemption instead. In Italy, a capital gain on a residential property sold by an individual more than five years after acquisition is generally outside income tax. Turkey applies a similar five-year concept. If you are inside the window, waiting can be worth more than moving quickly.

Others tax the gain regardless of how long you held it. France taxes property gains with a taper that only runs to full exemption after a long holding period, and the taper for income tax and for social levies runs on different schedules.

Selling as a non-resident: what actually happens

If you sell after leaving, expect the buyer's side to withhold tax and expect an extra layer of administration.

Spain. Where the seller is non-resident, the buyer is required to withhold 3 percent of the price and pay it over on account of the seller's gain, using Modelo 211. The seller then files Modelo 210 to settle the actual liability, reclaiming the excess if the withholding exceeded the tax due. Separately, the municipality charges plusvalía municipal on the increase in land value.

France. Non-resident sellers face a levy on the gain, currently 19 percent, plus social levies. The social levy rate is 17.2 percent generally, but is reduced to a 7.5 percent solidarity levy for individuals affiliated to a social security system in the EEA, Switzerland or the UK who are not covered by the French system. Non-EEA sellers must in many cases appoint an accredited fiscal representative where the price exceeds a threshold and the property has not been held long enough for full exemption; the representative charges a fee, typically a percentage of the price.

Portugal. The taxation of non-resident sellers changed following EU case law on discriminatory treatment, and non-residents can now generally be taxed on a comparable basis to residents rather than on the full gain at a flat rate. The position has moved more than once, so verify the current rule at the time of sale rather than relying on an older summary.

United States. FIRPTA requires the buyer to withhold a percentage of the gross sale price, commonly 15 percent, when the seller is a foreign person. Reduced rates and exemptions exist for lower-value residences that the buyer will occupy. Note that the withholding is on the price, not the gain, so it can substantially exceed the actual tax; the seller recovers the excess by filing a US return, or applies in advance for a withholding certificate.

United Kingdom. Non-residents are within the charge to capital gains tax on UK land and property, and a return must be filed and the tax paid within 60 days of completion. This deadline is short, it applies even where no tax is due in some cases, and penalties for missing it are common among returning expatriates who assumed it would go on the annual return.

Italy and Turkey. Both operate holding-period exemptions as described above; outside the window, the gain is taxable and the notary or land registry process handles the formalities.

The country you are returning to

The second half of the picture, and the half people forget.

If you are returning to the United Kingdom

Two rules dominate.

The four-year foreign income and gains regime, in force from 6 April 2025, replaced the old remittance basis. It relieves qualifying foreign income and gains from UK tax for the first four tax years of UK residence, and it is available to anyone who has been non-UK resident for at least the previous ten tax years. There is no remittance restriction, so money can be brought into the UK freely during the period. Claiming it costs you your personal allowance and your CGT annual exempt amount for that year, and a claim must be made and the amounts disclosed on the return.

For a long-term expatriate returning after a decade or more abroad, this can be a significant planning window, including for the sale of a foreign property in the years immediately after return.

The temporary non-residence rules point the other way. If your period abroad was short, broadly five years or less, certain income and gains realised while non-resident can be brought into UK charge in the year you return. This catches people who left, sold, and came back, and it is a reason not to treat a short posting as a tax-free window.

If you are returning to Spain

Spanish residents must report foreign assets above the reporting threshold on Modelo 720, with a separate return for foreign-held crypto. The obligation survived the Court of Justice ruling in 2022; what that ruling struck down was the disproportionate penalty regime and the effectively unlimited assessment period, not the reporting duty itself. Penalties were subsequently revised. Report it, and report it on time.

Spain also has a wealth tax, levied regionally, alongside a national solidarity levy on large fortunes, and worldwide assets come into scope once you are resident.

If you are returning to Canada

Canada generally treats you as having acquired your property at fair market value on the day you become resident. That step-up means gains that accrued while you were non-resident are not taxed by Canada on a later sale. Document the value at the date of arrival with a proper appraisal, because that number becomes your cost base. Separately, Canadian residents holding specified foreign property above the threshold must file form T1135.

If you are returning to the United States

If you are a US citizen or green card holder, nothing changes on return, because you were already taxed on worldwide income throughout. What may change is the loss of the foreign earned income exclusion and foreign housing exclusion, and the currency-gain treatment on repaying a foreign-currency mortgage, which can produce a taxable gain in dollars even where nothing happened in local currency.

If you are returning elsewhere

Ask three questions of a local adviser: does my country give a step-up in base on becoming resident; does it have a foreign asset reporting regime; and does it have a special regime for returning nationals. Several countries, including Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, have at various times operated inbound regimes with conditions attached to prior non-residence. These regimes change often, and eligibility usually turns on how long you were away.

If you keep it and let it

The obligations do not disappear, they reverse.

While you were resident there, you were a local landlord. Now you are a non-resident landlord in that country and a resident with foreign income at home. That means filing in both, claiming relief for one against the other under the double tax treaty, and dealing with two sets of deadlines in two currencies.

Additional points that catch people:

Withholding at source. Several countries require the tenant or the agent to withhold tax from rent paid to a non-resident landlord. The UK's non-resident landlord scheme is the best-known example, with a registration route to receive rent gross.
Non-resident tax rates can be worse. Deductibility of expenses is restricted for non-residents in some systems, and rates can be flat rather than progressive. In Spain, EU and EEA residents can deduct expenses that residents of third countries cannot, a distinction that matters for post-Brexit UK owners.
Platform reporting. Under DAC7 in the EU and equivalent rules elsewhere, rental platforms report host income to tax authorities, who exchange it. Assume your rental income is visible in both countries.
Insurance. Standard policies frequently exclude damage during extended vacancy or void unoccupied cover after a set number of consecutive days. A policy written for an owner-occupier is usually wrong for a let or empty property, and finding out at claim time is expensive.
Management. Remote ownership without a local manager works until the first burst pipe. Price a managing agent into the yield rather than treating it as optional.

The currency decision nobody plans

For most people the exchange rate moves the outcome more than the tax rate does.

If you sell abroad and repatriate, you convert the entire proceeds in a single transaction. A 5 percent move on a €400,000 sale is €20,000, which is more than most of the tax planning in this article will save you.

Three practical points:

Do not use your bank's retail spot rate for a six-figure transfer. The spread on a large transfer at a regulated specialist provider is materially tighter, and on this size that difference is real money.
Consider whether you need it all in one go. Where the funds are for a home purchase back home, forward contracts can fix the rate for a future date once you know the amount and timing.
Watch mortgage currency gains. If you borrowed in one currency and the loan is repaid at a different exchange rate, some tax systems, notably the US, treat the difference as a taxable gain.

A decision framework

Sell before you leave if: the relief you would lose is significant (an Australian main residence exemption, a residence-linked exemption elsewhere), the property is genuinely a home rather than an investment, or you need the equity for a purchase at home.

Sell after you leave if: a holding-period exemption is close to maturing, the local market is clearly moving in your favour, or a favourable inbound regime at home covers the gain in the years after your return. Accept that you will be selling remotely and budget for a fiscal representative and withholding.

Keep and let if: the net yield after both countries' tax, management, insurance, void periods and currency friction still beats what the equity would earn at home, and you have a reliable manager. Do this arithmetic properly. Gross yield abroad minus everything is frequently a much smaller number than owners expect.

Keep and use if: you will genuinely use it, you have priced the annual cost of ownership including any second-home or vacancy taxes, and you have made a will or succession arrangement that works across both countries.

Loose ends to close before you go

Keep a local bank account open where possible; it is far harder to open one from abroad, and utilities, taxes and service charges usually need local direct debits.
Appoint a fiscal representative or tax agent where the country requires one for non-residents.
Update your address with the land registry, the municipality and the tax authority; assessments sent to the property and never read become enforcement notices.
Grant a power of attorney to someone local, in the correct notarial form, before you leave. Arranging one from abroad is possible but slow and requires notarisation, legalisation or an apostille.
Review your will. The EU Succession Regulation lets EU nationals and residents choose the law of their nationality to govern their estate, and moving countries changes what applies by default.
Cancel or reassign utility contracts, insurance and standing orders deliberately, not by letting cards expire.
Keep records of everything: purchase deed, improvement invoices, tax filings and valuations. You will need them years later to prove your cost base, and reconstructing them from another country is difficult.

Frequently asked questions

Should I sell before or after I move back?
It depends on the reliefs at stake, and the answer differs by country and by how long you have owned the property. The general rule is that reliefs tied to residence status expire when the status does, and reliefs tied to holding periods do not. Establish which type applies to you before setting a moving date.

Will I be taxed twice on the sale?
Usually not on a net basis. Double tax treaties normally give the country where the property sits the primary right to tax, with your home country giving credit for the foreign tax paid. You can still end up paying the higher of the two rates, and you may pay tax in one country before you get relief in the other, which is a cash-flow problem even where it is not a double-tax problem.

Can I keep renting it out from my home country?
Yes, in almost all cases. You will need to register as a non-resident landlord where required, handle any withholding at source, and declare the income at home with a credit for foreign tax. Factor in that non-resident expense deductibility is sometimes narrower.

What if I cannot sell?
Illiquid markets are a real risk, especially in resort areas and rural regions with thin buyer pools. If a sale is part of your plan, start it well before your move date rather than after, and get an honest local valuation rather than an optimistic listing price.

Does moving back mean I lose my residence permit?
If the permit was tied to residence, yes, and this can matter if you might want to return. Some countries offer routes back for former residents, and some permits allow limited periods of absence. Check before you cancel anything, and note that property ownership by itself confers no right of residence in most countries.

Keep reading on JanusHermes

The sequence to work through is short: fix the date you become resident again, identify which reliefs are tied to status and which to a holding period, and only then choose between selling and keeping. Everything else follows from those three answers. JanusHermes lists property from local agencies in 11 languages, with the local agency's own contact details on every listing.

This article is general information, not tax, legal or financial advice. Residence rules, capital gains treatment, reporting obligations and inbound regimes vary by country and change frequently; several of the rules described here changed within the last two years. Take advice from qualified advisers in both countries, ideally before you set a moving date.