To Furnish Or Not To Furnish?

1. Property Letting – Furnishing or not furnishing a rental property

The key to a successful property letting is to work out who your target customer is and to present your buy to let property accordingly.

Providing furniture will increase the rent and give the landlord the edge of getting a tenant into their property quicker compared to an unfurnished property. However, always at the back of your mind you should be maximising your income whilst minimising your effort and costs.

Costs of furnishing a rental property

The true cost of furnishing a rental property varies from individual to individual and who your target market is. For example, to furnish a luxury apartment may cost around £5,000 or to kit a basic flat may cost around £500, providing you seek budget furniture from homeware stores.

You must also take into account the effort needed to source the furniture (this takes time and skill to source the right furniture to create the right ‘look’), assemble and arrange the furniture within the rental property. There is also the repair and renewal costs of the furniture to take into consideration.

If you choose to go down the student letting market, in the form of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO), they will need a bed with mattress, desk, chair, drawers and a wardrobe in each room. You will also provide them with the white goods.

There is a demand for furnished properties for short term tenants, especially professional workers who are required to relocate from work for short periods of time.

What furniture would the landlord require?

The rental property will require the basics of white good appliances such as a washing machine, fridge freezer and cooker, this is ideal for a part furnished rental property. If you are looking to fully furnish the rental property you will be looking at purchasing wardrobes, bed with mattress, dining table and chairs, sofa, lighting etc.

If your rental property is aimed at the short term lets, it will be of benefit to provide cutlery and cooking equipment.

To give you the edge and to rent your property out quicker you may choose to make the property more comfortable and homely by adding rugs, pictures on walls and other finishing touches to maximise your rent and to get the property tenanted sooner.

All furniture in a rental property must conform to the Fire Safety Regulation, which was implemented in 1997.

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