How to Furnish Your Flat so it Rents Fast, Fast FAST!

You’re a landlord so you need your flat to rent fast. Right? After all, flats that remain unoccupied for long periods of time cost you money – there’s no rent coming in but you still have the mortgage and utilities to pay.

Therefore furnish your flat so it rents fast … FAST … FAST!

In addition to furnishing your flat or house to provide what the tenant needs, consider the following.

1 Neutral is Best

In most situations, renting a flat fast is like selling a house fast – you need to appeal to as many people as possible by making sure that the colours and the furniture are things that the majority of prospective tenants will not quarrel with. In a word, make them neutral.

Yes, you may love deep purple walls and red sofas and pink accessories, but this will alienate many would-be tenants thus making your flat stand empty for weeks – if not months – before the “right” tenant comes along.

You may be a young man who loves dark, masculine colours and strong bold statements – or you may be a middle-aged lady who loves pretty pink floral curtains and pink floral sofas … and pink china … and nice floral pictures. Whatever your own personal taste is, try to think beyond what YOU would like and consider what the average tenant would like. Try to buy furniture – and use colour-schemes – that will appeal to a young man in his early twenties or to a divorced woman in her forties or to a couple in their thirties or fifties.

In our experience, furniture that is modern and wooden (or wooden veneer) and of a relatively conventional design will generally appeal to most people. As far as colour schemes go, a cream/magnolia type of colour scheme on the walls with fawn or light rust carpets and a few touches of colour in the accessories generally go down well.

2 Warm Colours are Easier than Cold Ones

How do you make a north-facing room seem more inviting? Use colours that have a warmish undertone to them – for example, choose cream settees and chair-coverings that are a warm shade of cream rather than those that have a cold undertone. Then coordinate the warm look with a few colourful warm accessories – rust-coloured cushions or brown/red pictures.

Even if you love dramatic/dark colour schemes, try to keep things fairly light and cheerful – if you wish to have a dark settee (many landlords consider dark settees don’t show the dirt as much as lighter colours do) then match this with wooden furniture that is of a lighter shade of wood so that the flat doesn’t seem too oppressive or too masculine.

3 Coordinate your Furniture

Try to coordinate the furniture throughout your flat – for example, if your kitchen has birch-veneer cupboards, then choose birch-veneer furniture for the lounge and bedroom(s) and dining-room (if any). If the flat has a unified look and feel throughout then, even if the furniture is not all that expensive, it will have a classier feel than a flat furnished with mismatching odds and ends.