Providing the essential items of furniture for your property in Canary Wharf and the City is almost essential. The overwhelmingly vast majority of tenants are looking for a furnished property. They are usually coming from abroad, and often not permanently, so they would not be shipping furniture of their own. Given the young age of the typical tenant demographic, they are typically in the early years of their own life of independent living so often do not even own the furniture required.
It is very rare that tenants looking for studios and one bedroom properties would bring their own furniture. If they are looking at furnishing a property, it will cost them significantly more money to rent an unfurnished property and buy the furniture themselves, than it would do to rent an already-furnished property. This will impact the rent they are prepared to pay, if indeed they are prepared to take on the additional hassle of buying their own.
As properties get larger, two and three bedrooms, and more so houses, this becomes less true. Larger properties are often rented by families, in which case they may have their own furniture as they have established households, and if they plan to settle in London for a reasonably long period of time, might prefer to bring their own furniture, or at least have some autonomy over the furniture they want in their home.
Often, the level of furnishing can be a point of negotiation, and items can be provided or removed, depending on the nature and profile of the tenant and the prospective contract terms on the table.
We would however always advise landlords not to provide anything over and above the main items of furniture. Landlords should usually provide the following in a furnished flat;
We would advise hanging some prints on walls which makes the property more appealing when viewing, but this is optional and these are easily removed if requested by tenants.
We also advise landlords to remove all electrical items from the property, including TV’s. Tenants should be responsible for buying and maintaining their own electrical equipment as they will tend to take care of it better than it is left for them, and the landlord is not then unnecessarily responsible for replacing these items should they break. Minimal or no kitchen equipment or utensils is also recommended.
If you have just bought a property and have no furniture, we would recommend leaving it unfurnished and marketing the property as ‘furnished or unfurnished’ and be prepared to purchase the furniture listed above should the tenant want it. That way you can tailor the furniture package to the first incoming tenant to ensure that there is no wasted cost in purchasing furniture that a tenant comes in and does not require! We can generally have a property fully furnished within a few days.
In Summary
Independent, experienced and trusted. We believe, and our clients tell us, that our personal service together with decades of experience in what we do, affords both our landlords and tenants a peace of mind and reassurance that their interests are taken care of in a transparent, honest and responsible way. We have a longstanding passion for property and take care of each unit within our portfolio, as if it were our own.
