Zakat on Property Bought for Resale

Short answer: Yes. Land or flats bought with firm resale intent are trade goods (ʿurūḍ at-tijārah) — every year on your zakat day, 2.5% of that day's market value is due, however long it stays unsold. Details: Use the fair market price of the day, not your purchase price. If you lack cash, scholars allowed recording each year's liability and settling all accumulated years the moment the land sells — the debt remains owed, never waived. If your intention genuinely changes (you decide to build your home there), it ceases to be trade goods from that day and zakat stops; but merely waiting for a better price is not a change of intention. Evidence: Quran 2:267; Sahih al-Bukhari 1 (deeds are by intentions — intent defines trade goods); the Permanent Committee and Shaykh Ibn Baz on yearly market-value zakat for land held for sale, with settlement after sale permitted for the illiquid. For complex individual cases, consult a qualified scholar.