Furnished apartments, fully furnished apartments, and if that isn’t enough, unfurnished apartments. Having these terms on listing portals does make the rental market seem a little bit more complicated than it needs to be.
In fact, if you are currently in the market looking for a new rental apartment to lease, you are most likely deciding between a furnished or unfurnished apartment. Put simply, furnished apartments are equipped with basic furniture and relevant household necessities to make your moving in easy and hassle-free. An unfurnished apartment on the other hand allows creativity by giving you a blank slate of an apartment, making the place your personal space.
Now to add a little sprinkle to the discussion, there is also the distinction between semi-furnished and fully furnished apartments. I’ve written a pretty comprehensive discussion on that and if you want to find out more, check out this article.
Now, before I go in-depth with the topic, can I help you make things clearer when it comes to being able to identify between a furnished and unfurnished apartment? Besides that, I would like to also help you determine for yourself if renting a furnished apartment is worth it.
The distinction between furnished and unfurnished apartments
Generally, furnished apartments can range in furnishing from being close to an empty unit to the other spectrum of being fully equipped with all living necessities. In most cases, furnished apartments would be equipped with simple furnishing for the kitchen, living room, bedroom, and toilets.
Some furnished apartments might even have carpets, curtains, and wall paintings to make the place cozy for the tenants. As an avid renter myself, I typically ask my potential landlord what furniture can I expect if I am to rent his place, just to save myself from any rude surprise.
An unfurnished apartment does not come with any furniture or appliances. This means that the tenant will need to bring their own furniture and household items in order to live in the unit. In most cases, it would include only the basic fixtures of ceiling fans, power plug sockets, toilet bowl, sink, and shower.
I’m pretty sure you’re aware that an unfurnished apartment will cost less to rent than a furnished apartment and that is probably not what you’re looking for here. Instead, I will attempt to break down the benefit and disadvantages of renting a fully furnished apartment so that you can decide for yourself if a fully furnished apartment is worth the higher rent.
The benefits of renting furnished apartments
Yes, you are going to spend more on rent but you have to remember, you would not need to fork out additional capital to buy furniture for your home, and neither do you need to spend money on moving costs.
Besides that, there will be other tangible benefits that I want you to be aware of when deciding between furnished and unfurnished apartments.
1. Affordability
Before you go screaming at me, hear me out.
Now, I imagine you just graduated from college and you are looking for a temporary place while applying for jobs. Otherwise, you and your family are new to the city for that dream job but you still do not want to commit to a rental place before your work settles down.
Either way, you wouldn’t have owned any furniture and you’d prefer to keep it that way. In that case, renting a furnished apartment is the most budget-friendly solution since you wouldn’t need to factor in furniture costs into your rental budget.
While rents are higher by 20% – 50% for a furnished apartment, it still beats the idea of forking out $10,000 – $20,000 to buy furniture especially if you plan to stay there for only a short while.
2. No moving cost
Since you won’t be bringing your own furniture, you wouldn’t need to engage the help of moving companies. Just bring your belongings in a personal suitcase and you are ready to call the new place home.
If you have more belongings than I can imagine, you can still opt to hire a smaller truck which is still going to be a significant saving.
Did you know, engaging professional help to move furniture can come up to $220 per trip? Imagine if you are moving an entire apartment of furniture, I would say it’d take you 4-5 trips to completely move your furniture from home A to home B, costing you upwards of $1,000.
3. Save time by being practical
When I move homes, it typically takes me about 1-2 days to finally settle in despite not having any furniture. There is the cleaning to deal with then there are the little details for the different rooms to work out. Having said that, the 1-2 days to settle in is much faster in comparison to moving into an unfurnished apartment.
If you choose to rent an unfurnished apartment, not only do you need to deal with moving your furniture, but you will also need to spend time measuring the space to make sure the furniture fits into your new home. Personally, I find renting furnished apartments a lot more practical because I get to move in quickly and get on with life.
However, that’s me with my engineer’s hat on, efficient and pragmatic. What works for me may not necessarily work for you. So you really should be asking yourself, do I prefer room for creativity, or do I prefer life to be easy and practical?
4. Freedom
If you’ve never intended to rent for the long term, renting a furnished apartment can be a smart investment. Say, for example, you’re in the city to complete your internship, it’d be rather inconvenient if you move all your furniture into a moving and it can get very expensive, very quickly.
Another consideration is your career whereby some jobs will require you to travel from city to city. For example, traveling doctors or military members do need to move quite frequently depending on where they are being posted. In such cases, then you’ll be better off considering fully furnished apartments.
The great thing about furnished apartments is the idea that you can one day get up and go if your life experiences some sudden change that requires you to relocate. You will not need to worry about the logistics involved in moving your own furniture, saving yourself the hassle and time.
The disadvantages of renting furnished apartments
Commonly, the main disadvantages to furnished apartments are the higher rent and security deposit. With more furnishing in the apartment, the landlord would expect to collect a higher security deposit in case you did a terrible job in upkeeping the place.
However, there are other disadvantages to renting furnished apartments. While I did allude briefly to some of the disadvantages, let me break them down for you.
1. Limited personalization
The choices in furniture are not yours to make and oftentimes, those choices are made out of getting the best return on the invested capital. In other words, landlords wouldn’t spend as much money to furnish the place, keeping the interior design simple and versatile with a lack of personality.
As the renter, you don’t get to choose the furniture and you won’t have as many options to personalize the space. While you can make simple changes to the colors, you can’t really make any major changes to the furniture. Perhaps some personal touches like wall artwork and your own carpet can help make your space feel more like home.
I’ve written my personal experience on how to turn a generic furnished apartment into my family’s personal abode without breaking the bank and violating our tenancy agreement. If you want to know what can be done to your furnished apartment to make it personal, check out this article!
2. More furnishing, more liability
When you sign the tenancy agreement, you are essentially agreeing to lease and maintain the place, including the furniture it comes with. Upon completing the tenancy period, it is your responsibility to return the property back to the landlord as it was on the first day of your moving in.
No doubt that furniture does get worn out over time, but it is still your responsibility to maintain the furniture if you believe the furniture is too badly worn out, you will need to communicate with the landlord to get it replaced.
In countries where there is no residential tenancy act, like Malaysia, the tenancy agreement will be the legal covenant between the landlord and the tenant. It provides a detailed description of the rented property, the tenancy duration, schedule, payment amount, and any furniture involved.
I’ve also written an article that spells out the landlord and tenants’ responsibility. If you need somewhere to start as guidance, do check out this simple breakdown of responsibilities.
Final Words
If you’re still undecided between a furnished and unfurnished apartment, then you’d want to begin by asking yourself how long you expect to stay in the city, and in this particular premise. If your answer to that question is for the short term, then it’d be wiser to consider renting furnished apartments which are usually the better choice for short-term renting.
Otherwise, do feel free to drop me an email. I’d love to help you get unstuck in your situation!
