Tax on Selling Your Home in Norway

This calculator shows whether the sale of your home is tax-free in Norway and, if not, how large the gain is and how much tax you pay. The rules are in section 9-3 of the Tax Act. You are exempt when you have owned the home for more than one year and lived in it for at least one year during the last two years before the sale. This is useful for newcomers who buy a home soon after arriving, and for expats selling before they leave.

Ownership and residence

Ownership is counted from the date you took over the home until the sale takes place or is agreed. The date that counts is the date you accept the bid, not the handover. Exactly one year is not enough: it must be more than a year. The time you lived there runs from moving in until moving out (or the sale), and several periods within the two-year window are added together. You must have used the whole home as your own home. If you let out part of it, section 9-3 also exempts the gain when you use at least half of it yourself (by rental value) and let the rest for housing purposes.

How the gain is calculated

Gain = sale price − selling costs − purchase price − purchase costs − upgrades. Selling costs are the estate agent, advertising, styling and valuation report, but not moving. Purchase costs are stamp duty (dokumentavgift) and the land registry fee. In a housing cooperative (borettslag), include your share of the shared debt both when you bought and when you sell. Upgrades are work that improved the home compared with when you bought it; maintenance to the same standard cannot be deducted.

The same home in different situations

A sale price of NOK 5,000,000, selling costs of NOK 100,000, purchase price of NOK 4,200,000 and purchase costs of NOK 105,000 give a gain of NOK 595,000. Tax at 22%.

Worked example: moved out and let the flat

Sam bought a flat on 1 March 2022 for NOK 3,800,000 and paid NOK 95,000 in stamp duty and registration. Sam spent NOK 120,000 on a fireplace and extended wiring. From mid-May 2025 the flat was let out, and it was sold on 15 September 2026 for NOK 4,600,000 with NOK 85,000 in agent costs. The gain is NOK 4,515,000 − NOK 4,015,000 = NOK 500,000. Sam lived there only 8 of the last 24 months, so the gain is taxable: NOK 110,000 of tax. Had Sam lived there until mid-September 2025 (12 of 24 months), the sale would be tax-free and the tax NOK 0.

Buying costs are covered in the Norway stamp duty calculator. To see where the gain fits in your total tax, use the income tax calculator.