A user equipment (UE) uses conditional reconfiguration during positioning to improve the positioning performance. The UE receives conditional reconfiguration information from a serving base station, which includes a list one or more candidate target base stations and their associated resources for handover. During a positioning session, the UE receives assistance data and determines a target base station for handover based on the list of candidate target base stations and the assistance data. The UE, for example, may select a candidate target base station for handover during the positioning session to minimize the number of measurements gaps that are required for positioning measurements, or to increase bandwidth or minimize self-interference. Where timing advance measurements are requested, the UE may select a candidate target base station based on sub-carrier spacing to improve measurement resolution.