To Furnish or not to Furnish
If you provide serviced accommodation or have a HMO then obviously, you fully furnish a property. If you have a different type of property let then this will depend on the local market and it pays to be flexible. It is always useful to ask the local lettings agent for their advice on what tenants are looking for as you may be able to get away with ‘part-furnished’.
This can mean a lot of different things to different people but to most it will mean ‘White goods only’. When it comes to families (including those on local housing allowance) mostly prefer an unfurnished house as they usually have their own things.
In some cases having furniture in B2L properties can actually deter tenants away from renting your place. The best thing with this is that it always easier to add in furniture if you really like a tenant and then they ask for more furniture rather than spending loads of time and money on furniture then having to remove it because no one wants it to be furnished. You could also as an alternative you could reduce the rent and they can themselves buy the furniture, there are many creative ways around this and you just have to be flexible.
The pros of letting unfurnished or par-furnished properties:
- No need to worry about whether your soft furnishing comply with fire safety regulations.
- No need to get expensive contents insurance
- Takes less time to do the inventory – saving on letting agent costs
- Less items to get damaged , so less chance of a dispute
- Tenants with their own things tens to stay longer
- Less time and money has gone into the property (no searching, purchasing or coordinating furniture deliveries)
Remember – if you let with some furnishings you use to be able to claim 10% wear & tear allowance off the net rent under old tax rules. This changed with effect from 6th April 2017, you can now only claim for when you renew an item.
