Property is assessed according to ownership and purpose. A personal residence and a property held to earn rent are generally treated differently from property acquired as trading stock. Retained rental cash can be eligible even where the building itself is not included.
Start with the purpose of ownership
Write down whether a property is your home, a long-term rental asset or part of a trading business. Intention and changes of use matter; a plan to sell at some unspecified point does not automatically answer every classification question. Joint ownership and company structures also require care.
Separate the building from the cash
For a property held to generate rent, the building is generally excluded under the commonly described rental-asset approach. Rent retained as cash joins the rest of your eligible wealth. Rent already spent is no longer a cash asset, and money owed by a tenant may require a receivables assessment.
A retained-rent example
A rental property has a market value of £200,000 and the owner holds £6,000 of accumulated rent on the Zakat date. Under a method excluding the rental building, £200,000 is not entered as an asset merely because it is the sale value. The eligible £6,000 joins other cash, before permitted deductions.
Where the overall conditions are met, the attributable Zakat on that £6,000 is £150.
Mortgages, costs and property businesses
A mortgage balance is not automatically deducted in full. Establish any permitted principal deduction under the method you follow. Costs already paid have already reduced cash and should not be subtracted again. Property development, resale businesses, mixed use and assets held through companies can require a specialist assessment.
Sources & calculation method
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