Should I let my property furnished or unfurnished?

Start with the market

This is a question about tenants rather than about furniture. Look at what is currently advertised in your street and in the two streets either side, and at who the listings are aimed at.

• Student and university areas. Furnished, almost always. Students arrive without furniture and an unfurnished property is close to unlettable.
• City centre flats and young professionals. Furnished or part furnished, particularly where tenants are relocating for work or expect to stay a year or two.
• Family homes and suburbs. Usually unfurnished. Families own furniture, and yours becomes a problem they have to store.
• Corporate lets. Furnished to a higher standard, often with a rent to match. Aberdeen has a real corporate market tied to the energy sector, and several agencies there list corporate lets as a specialism.

The premium, and the cost

Furnished typically achieves a modest rent premium, and the size varies by market. Set against it three costs people forget.

The initial outlay. Furnishing a two bedroom flat to a decent standard is a real sum, and cheap furniture in a rental has a short life.

The replacement cycle. Beds, sofas and appliances wear out, and you replace them rather than the tenant. Budget for it annually instead of treating each replacement as a surprise.

Insurance and inventory. Contents you supply need insuring, and every item needs recording and checking at both ends of every tenancy.

Run the arithmetic over five years rather than one. A twenty five pound monthly premium is three hundred pounds a year, or fifteen hundred over five, which may or may not cover what you spent and replaced in that time.

Fire safety rules that apply

This is the part that catches landlords out, because it applies to furniture you supply rather than to the property.

Upholstered furniture supplied with a let must meet the fire safety requirements for furniture and furnishings, and compliant items carry a permanent label confirming it. That covers sofas, armchairs, beds, mattresses, headboards, cushions and similar items.

Two practical consequences. Secondhand furniture from a private sale often has no label, and unlabelled upholstered items should not go into a let. And when you replace something mid tenancy, the replacement needs to comply too, which means keeping receipts and noting the replacement on the inventory.

Electrical items you supply should be safe as well, which is a judgement about condition and risk rather than a blanket requirement to test everything annually, as our landlord checklist explains.

Inventory and deposit consequences

More furniture means more to record, more to argue about, and more that can be deducted for at the end.

List every item with make, model and condition rather than writing sofa. Photograph each piece, dated. Note existing marks specifically, because a vague description works against whoever is relying on it later.

Remember the betterment rule when something is damaged. A five year old sofa with a ten year life is worth half a new one, not the price of a replacement, and adjudicators apply that consistently. An inventory that records the age of items makes that calculation straightforward instead of contested.

The middle option

Part furnished is often the best answer and it is underused. Supply the things tenants rarely own and always need: flooring, curtains or blinds, a cooker, a fridge freezer and a washing machine. Leave the rest.

It widens your applicant pool, because a furnished tenant can live with it and an unfurnished tenant is not asked to store your sofa. It keeps your replacement cycle to appliances, which you would probably supply anyway. And it shortens the inventory.

How to decide

1. Look at ten comparable listings nearby and count how many are furnished.
2. Ask two agencies what lets fastest in that street, and ask what the premium actually is rather than accepting that there is one.
3. Price the furnishing cost and divide it across five years.
4. Compare that against the premium over the same period.
5. If it is close, go part furnished, because it costs less and excludes fewer applicants.

And whichever you choose, remember the void arithmetic: an extra empty month costs a full month of rent, which is more than most furnished premiums earn in a year.