Country cottage

My clients bought a property in London on 25 November 1995 which has always been their main private residence. In August 2007 they purchased a holiday home in the country. They intend to use the holiday home as their residence between September and January (most weekends) and rent the property out between February and August as a furnished holiday let/furnished let. Our clients now wish to elect for the London property to be their main private residence before the two-year time window in TCGA 1992 s 222(5) elapses to enable the election to be varied at a later date should the holiday home be sold (to enable main residence relief to be claimed for the last 36 months). I should be grateful if readers would please comment on the following points.

• Confirm that the 'second home' qualifies as a residence for the purpose of making the election...