# switching primary residence



## rychiemaro (Apr 9, 2011)

Hello,

heres my situation

I currently own a condo and want to sell it switch my primary residence to a different property 

here are the facts:

July 2011 - acquired the property

Mar 2012 - will want to move in

Heard you have to live in your primary residence for 6 months+ before you can sell w/o any implication

is there a delay for when I can buy another property and move in w/o tax implications and still have that house be treated as my primary residence?

Thanks,


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## Freedom25 (Dec 3, 2011)

As long as a residence really is your primary residence, I don't think you'll have a problem. If you're moving in just to sell it, you'll probably still be OK as long as you don't do it all the time; it's hard for the Taxman to prove you moved into it just to avoid capital gains, so they don't usually pursue (or even notice) those transactions from what I've heard from somebody who works for CRA.

If you were to do it all the time though you might have to be more careful and keep lots of evidence to show it's your primary residence (be careful that you're not actually living someplace else and just pretending to live in the property that is for sale.)

I moved back into my rental house about 6 months before it sold, but when I moved in it was a genuine move in, had nowhere else to live at the time and had a tenant I wasn't too fond of, so decided it was time for her to leave rather than me rent an apartment for myself. I wasn't sure I was selling at the time, not that that should really matter. If you are genuinely taking up residence in your own property, then you will be OK, just make sure you're not really maintaining a real residence elsewhere that they could catch you out on.

If on the other hand, you really live in residence "A" but move into "B" to sell it, then back to "A" for a while and then into "C" to sell that one, you might eventually get caught doing that, especially if it's on a short timeline.


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## iherald (Apr 18, 2009)

There is no time limit with respect to how long you have to live in a property. However, don't forget if you are moving into a property to avoid having to pay capital gain taxes, you'll likely add capital gains on your current residence. 

I could see alarm bells ringing if your have one PR for five years, switch to another for two months and then go back to the first. It doesn't 'smell' right.


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