Furnished or Unfurnished: Which Actually Lets Faster
It depends almost entirely on the property and the local tenant pool, and the honest answer is not the one furniture retailers give.
The case for furnished
City-centre one-beds, anything aimed at students or short-term professionals, and relocations. Tenants arriving with nothing will pay a premium for not having to buy a sofa they cannot get up the stairs.
Furnished also lets faster in absolute terms in those markets, and a shorter void is often worth more than the extra rent.
The case for unfurnished
Family houses, three beds and up, anywhere the likely tenant already owns furniture. Offering furniture to a family that owns their own creates a storage problem for both of you, and they will discount their offer accordingly.
Unfurnished also removes an entire category of deposit dispute, because nothing on the inventory can be scratched, stained or broken.
Part-furnished, and why it annoys everyone
White goods and nothing else is the version that works, and it is worth stating exactly that in the advert. Anything vaguer produces viewings where the tenant assumed the beds were staying and you assumed they were not.
