Furnished vs Unfurnished - Which is better?

As a landlord, there are plenty of dilemmas and questions that you may come across. A large one that you may face, is whether you should let your property on a furnished or unfurnished basis.

With this question, there unfortunately is not a straightforward answer, as like all things, it depends on you and your tenant's situation. We find that over 70% of tenants are in a position where they have their own furniture, so to make the property their own.  However, there are tenants, who may have come from another furnished property previously, so would prefer not having to buy their own furniture.

Whilst there is no straight answer, we have produced a list of pros for each option that will hopefully aid you in making up your mind:

Pros of an Unfurnished Rental:

·         Tenants will accumulate their own furniture over the years, which often means longer tenancies, and less void periods as the moving process becomes more costly and time consuming for them.

·         They have the freedom to furnish the property as they see fit, meaning you will not run the risk of getting requests from them to change any furniture items that do not fit their taste.

·         With none of your own furniture in the property, you will not need to worry about it being cleaned/replaced or updated before new tenancies, and there will be less wear and tear to consider on the check out.  Also, all soft furnishing needs to have a safety mark for fire regulations, which won’t apply to you.

·         Tenants will be responsible for their own furniture, meaning if anything breaks or gets damaged, the cost will not come down to you as a landlord to get it fixed.

·         You don’t need an inventory of furniture to complete at check in and out.

·         Tenants are less likely to leave any additional furniture in the property at check out

Pros of a Furnished Rental:

·         When renting out your property on a furnished basis, you may be able to get more money for it, which may be particularly beneficial if you have large monthly mortgage payments you need to cover.

·         Furnished rentals are particularly appealing to a different rental market. Students in a House of multiple occupancy, young professionals, and those on placements find furnished properties ideal as they can move in and out quickly, without having to purchase all their own furnishings.

·         Moving furniture in and out of a property can create damage to walls, this would be minimised as the furniture will stay in place from one tenancy to the next.

For all your property questions, please call Harry Charles Property Managers to discuss any other questions you may have before renting out your property on 01923 731313 or email our Property Team leader Amanda@harrycharles.co.uk