“I no longer want to live in an apartment furnished with forklifts and backhoes.”

Nicholson Baker, Novelist

Pros and Cons of Renting a Furnished Apartment

advantages and disadvantages of renting a furnished apartment

You consider renting a furnished apartment?

While this could be the right way to go for you, there are still some problems related to it.

Therefore, I provide you with all the pros and cons of renting furnished apartments in the following so that you can better decide whether renting a furnished apartment is the best way to go for you or if you rather want to go for unfurnished flats instead.

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Advantages of Renting a Furnished Apartment

  1. You don’t have to buy new furniture
  2. You can save plenty of money
  3. Renting a furnished apartment can save you time
  4. You don’t have to take efforts to move all your old stuff to your new home
  5. Especially suitable for short-term rent
  6. Helpful for people from foreign countries
  7. Good for people who change their location quite often
  8. Good for consultants
  9. May also be a good choice for students
  10. Good for people who can’t afford buying their own furniture yet
  11. Rather lazy people will love furnished apartments
  12. Furnished living facilities often also offer additional services
  13. Flexible form of living

You don’t have to buy new furniture

One important advantage of renting a furnished apartment is that you don’t have to buy your own furniture.

In fact, it can be quite nice to just move in when everything is already installed and you don’t have to worry about getting much additional stuff from the store.

Moreover, also for people who don’t have a good taste regarding furniture, it can be better just to rely on experts who know what they are doing.

You can save plenty of money

By renting furnished apartments, you can also save a lot of money in the short run since you don’t have to buy any furniture by yourself.

Instead, everything will be ready for you and you can save many thousands of dollars of upfront costs.

Consequently, especially if you are on a budget right now or even in debt, renting furnished flats may be better for you compared to buying all the furniture from scratch.

Renting a furnished apartment can save you time

Buying your own furniture can also be quite time-consuming.

You have to go to many furniture stores, plan a lot and you will also likely make some mistakes on your way.

For instance, you may buy things that actually don’t fit into your apartment or that simply don’t look good in it at all.

By relying on furnished apartments instead, you can avoid all this stress and can also use your time for other things you like more.

You don’t have to take efforts to move all your old stuff to your new home

Another benefit of renting furnished apartments is that you don’t have to move all your old stuff to your new home.

Especially if you have plenty of old furniture, it can be a tremendous effort to move all of it to your new location.

If you do it by yourself, it will take you many days or even weeks to do it.

If you hire an agency, it can also cost you plenty of money to move all your stuff and the labor costs may even be higher than the resale value of your furniture.

Consequently, by going for a furnished apartment instead, you can save you some effort.

You can just make a garage sale and with a little bit of luck, other people will buy your stuff and you will no longer have to worry about moving it.

Especially suitable for short-term rent

Furnished flats are also quite popular for short-term rent.

Many people who are not sure yet whether they want to stay in a region for longer or not are often quite happy to rent furnished apartments since they don’t have to buy any furniture and can move in and out in a rather flexible manner.

In fact, if you are not sure where you want to spend the next years of your life yet, going for a furnished apartment can make quite a lot of sense for you since you can save plenty of money and effort by doing so.

Helpful for people from foreign countries

Furnished apartments can also be quite convenient for people from foreign countries who haven’t found a permanent location yet.

If you are new in a country, you will have to organize many different things and may not be able to find a conventional flat at the beginning.

Moreover, some documents which are crucial to rent a normal flat might still be missing as well.

In such a case, renting a furnished apartment is great since you can stay there until you organized yourself, got all your documents and are ready to move to an unfurnished apartment for long-term living.

Good for people who change their location quite often

Some people also simply don’t like staying at one location at all.

Some people have the travel bug and can’t stay in one location for longer than a few weeks or months.

If you are one of those people who gets bored pretty soon and who wants to live in many different locations, going for furnished apartments can also make quite a lot of sense since it will often not be worth it to buy any furniture in that case.

Good for consultants

Furnished flats are also quite popular among consultants and other people who have to work away from home on a frequent basis.

Those people often have the choice between staying in a hotel or getting a flat sponsored by their company.

Thus, if you work in one of those professions and rather want to live in a flat instead of a hotel while you are on business trips, renting a furnished flat can also make quite a lot of sense.

May also be a good choice for students

Furnished apartments are also quite popular among students.

Many students are just not able to afford buying expensive furniture.

Moreover, it is often not worth it for students to buy their own furniture since students will only study for a few years and will then move to another place most of the time.

Good for people who can’t afford buying their own furniture yet

In general, furnished apartments are a great choice for people who just can’t afford buying their own furniture yet due to various reasons.

In fact, furniture can be quite expensive and you should not estimate the costs of furnishing a flat or even a house.

Even if you are economical and buy rather cheap things, you should still expect to spend thousands of dollars for every room you want to furnish.

Rather lazy people will love furnished apartments

While furnished apartments are only a short-term solution for many people, they can also be a long-term solution for lazy people who simply don’t want to deal with all of the effort and stress that comes along with buying their own furniture.

In fact, it is far more convenient just to use the furniture in furnished apartments.

Hence, if you are the kind of person who loves convenience and doesn’t want to make any effort in this regard, chances are that living in a furnished apartment may be the way to go for you.

Furnished living facilities often also offer additional services

Another upside of living in furnished apartments is that those furnished living facilities not only provide furniture, but they often also collect your waste and provide you with internet.

In fact, furnished apartments often offer you an all-round carefree package and can give you plenty of mental space that you can use for other things instead.

Flexible form of living

In general, living in furnished apartments also gives you quite a high level of flexibility.

Since most furnished apartments are rented short-term, you will be able to move out just after a few weeks if you don’t like it there and can search for other apartments instead.

Thus, you also don’t have to commit to long-term contracts and can stay flexible, which will allow you to change your plants quite frequently if you want to.

Disadvantages of Renting Furnished Flats

  1. You are rather inflexible regarding your furniture
  2. Furnished flats are often much more expensive
  3. You will have to pay for damages to the furniture
  4. Many people move to unfurnished flats sooner or later
  5. Rather unsuitable for individualists
  6. Furniture quality may be poor
  7. You will often not be allowed to make any adjustments
  8. Does not make sense from a financial perspective in the long run
  9. Higher deposits for furnished apartments are quite common
  10. Selection of furnished apartments is rather limited in many regions
  11. You will have to dispose of many things you currently own
  12. “Furnished” doesn’t always mean the same
  13. Furnished flats take away affordable living space

You are rather inflexible regarding your furniture

Even though there are many advantages of renting furnished apartments, this concept also implies some issues.

For instance, one problem with renting furnished apartments is that you will be quite inflexible regarding your furniture.

Quite often, you will not get permission to dispose of things and buy new furniture instead.

Thus, even if you don’t like some pieces of furniture, you will still have to accept it and live with it.

In contrast, if you rent a normal apartment, you will be free to decorate and furnish it in line with your individual preference.

Hence, renting a furnished apartment also means making compromises regarding the furniture and you will never be 100% happy with it.

Furnished flats are often much more expensive

Another disadvantage of furnished flats is that they are often much more expensive compared to conventional unfurnished ones.

In fact, furnished apartments are often offered up to 50% more expensive compared to normal flats.

This also implies a significant financial burden and you should make sure that paying that much money is really worth it to you before you decide to go for a furnished apartment.

You will have to pay for damages to the furniture

You will also be liable for any damage to your furniture.

If the furniture is quite expensive and you damage it due to various possible reasons, you will often have to pay significant amounts of money to fix those damages or to replace parts of the furniture.

If you live in an unfurnished apartment and own your furniture instead, you don’t have to replace or fix it right now and it is on you to decide when you want to do so.

Many people move to unfurnished flats sooner or later

While furnished apartments can be a valid short-term solution, many people decide to move to an unfurnished apartment in the long run.

People often just want to choose their own furniture since they often have a different taste than the owners of furnished apartments.

Thus, if you plan to stay in a region for longer, you might want to go for unfurnished apartments instead of renting furnished ones.

Rather unsuitable for individualists

Also in case you are an individualist, renting furnished apartments will likely not be the right way to go for you.

Being an individualist means that you want to make everything unique and special and that also includes choosing your own furniture instead of relying on the furniture that landlords have chosen.

Furniture quality may be poor

Another downside of renting furnished apartments is that the overall quality of the furniture may be rather poor. Of course, this also greatly differs across flats.

While some flats will have high-quality furniture, others will only offer you quite used stuff which will be ready for the garbage dump quite soon.

Thus, be careful what flat you want to rent and if you think the furniture quality is quite poor, you should just go for a different flat.

You will often not be allowed to make any adjustments

Renting furnished apartments also implies that you will not be allowed to make any major adjustments to the furniture in your flat.

In some cases, you will not even be allowed to rearrange things.

This can be quite annoying, especially if you know that the space could be used much more efficiently by rearranging stuff.

Does not make sense from a financial perspective in the long run

While renting furnished apartments can make sense for a few weeks or months, it doesn’t make sense from a financial perspective in the long run.

In fact, you will lose plenty of money over the course of years by relying on furnished apartments compared to just renting unfurnished flats and buying your own furniture.

Higher deposits for furnished apartments are quite common

Another issue with furnished apartments is that also the deposit tends to be much higher in many countries all over the world.

This is due to the fact that you could potentially damage or destroy the fancy furniture and landlords want to be sure to be covered in case of emergency.

However, such high deposits are especially problematic for people who are on a budget right now and often can’t afford paying it.

Selection of furnished apartments is rather limited in many regions

In many regions, you will also have difficulties with finding furnished apartments to rent.

Especially in rural areas, renting furnished apartments is rather uncommon and also the supply of furnished apartments will be rather limited in those regions.

Thus, if you live in one of those rural areas, you may have difficulties even finding such an apartment type to rent.

You will have to dispose of many things you currently own

Moving to furnished apartments also means disposing of many things you own right now.

Especially if you have an emotional connection to your things, it can be quite hard to get rid of them and you might be better off by just renting an unfurnished apartment instead.

“Furnished” doesn’t always mean the same

Furnished is a term that doesn’t mean the same across regions or even countries.

In fact, while furnished means fully furnished in some regions, it only means partly furnished in others.

Hence, be careful not to think that you will necessarily get a fully furnished flat.

Instead, you have to inspect each flat on an individual basis to see what’s really included or not.

Furnished flats take away affordable living space

In general, since furnished flats are often offered at a much higher rent compared to unfurnished flats, they also contribute to housing shortage, especially in the affordable price segment.

This can lead to trouble for many middle-class families who may struggle to find affordable housing in their region.

Top 10 Furnished Apartments Pros & Cons – Summary List

Furnished Apartments ProsFurnished Apartments Cons
You don’t need to buy your own furnitureYou can’t change the furniture in your flat
Renting furnished apartments is convenientRent for furnished apartments is quite high
You can save money in the short runDoes not make sense for long-term living
Furnished apartments can save you timeMany people quit after few weeks or months
Good for people with bad tasteHigh deposit for furnished apartments
Valid alternative for studentsQuality of furniture can be poor
Helpful for people coming from abroadYou have to replace things you damage
Good solution if you want to move frequentlyIndividualists may have quite a hard time
You are quite flexible in furnished apartmentsConfined level of freedom
Additional services are often includedFurnished flats take away affordable living space

Should You Rent A Furnished Apartment?

As we can conclude from the previous analysis, there are many important advantages and disadvantages of renting furnished apartments.

In the end, it is on you to evaluate all the pros and cons so that you can make a profound choice in this regard that is in line with your individual preferences and circumstances.

Sources

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/rent-a-property/

https://www.propertymark.co.uk/advice-and-guides/renting/top-tips-for-renting.aspx

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2012/aug/31/top-10-renting-tips-happy-tenant

About the author

My name is Andreas and my mission is to educate people of all ages about our environmental problems and how everyone can make a contribution to mitigate these issues.

As I went to university and got my Master’s degree in Economics, I did plenty of research in the field of Development Economics.

After finishing university, I traveled around the world. From this time on, I wanted to make a contribution to ensure a livable future for the next generations in every part of our beautiful planet.

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