The big question for many landlords is whether they should let their property furnished, or unfurnished. Now, of course in such a wide marketplace there’s many people that would be interested in a furnished property, and likewise with unfurnished. In fact, we ran a quick poll on Twitter to find out what the average tenant would prefer – 64% of tenants would prefer unfurnished whilst 14% prefer furnished and a further 22% would be open minded when looking for a property. We’ve taken a look at the pros and cons of both furnished and unfurnished to help you decide which would be the best fit for your property before you put it on the market.
Furnished properties are popular with young tenants, it could be their first home and they may not have all of their own furniture yet. By offering the property furnished you’re potentially opening up to a wider audience that may be interested in a furnished property. One issue, however might be the maintenance issues that go with furniture. The tenant should always look after the furniture, however if it got damaged or broken you could end up with a maintenance dispute on your hands. If a tenant falls in love with your furnished property, but already owns their own furniture, they could be put off by the thought of paying storage costs for their furniture, which they will likely prefer to have in their new home with them.
Unfurnished properties appeal to many people, as shown in our statistics above. This is likely to be because tenants can add their own stamp and style to a property, and for tenants that already own furniture, they can move all of their belongings with them. An unfurnished property offers flexibility to the tenant, they can decide what furniture goes in what room, it can also help to make the property feel more like home. Whilst furnished properties can also feel extremely homely, many people aspire to own their own furniture, unfurnished properties help to achieve this aspiration.
Ultimately, it is down to the landlord to decide which would best fit their properties, however, when looking at our statistics there’s a clear cut winner and unfurnished seems to be what the majority of tenants would look for when viewing a property.
