Neither option is better for every landlord. Letting furnished can widen your appeal to tenants who do not own furniture, such as people moving to Cambridge for a job or a course, but it means buying, checking, insuring and replacing more items, and it brings in fire safety rules for upholstered furniture and wider product safety duties for everything you supply. Letting unfurnished is simpler to run and suits tenants who already have their own furniture.
We have found no official figure for how much more rent a furnished home achieves, in Cambridge or nationally, so treat any percentage you see quoted with caution. The best guide is evidence from similar homes that have let recently near yours. This guide covers who each option tends to suit, what the law requires in England, how deposits and inventories work, and the tax relief available when you replace furniture and appliances.
These labels are used loosely in letting adverts, so what matters is the list of items in your advert and inventory.
Whatever you provide becomes your responsibility to keep safe, so an "unfurnished" home that comes with a cooker and fridge still carries duties for those appliances.
The choice often comes down to who your property will appeal to. A furnished home is easier for tenants who would otherwise have to buy or move furniture: people relocating for work, sharers, postgraduates and anyone arriving from overseas. An unfurnished home tends to suit tenants who already have a household of furniture, such as couples and families planning to stay for some time and wanting to make the home their own.
Property type matters too. A one-bedroom flat close to the city centre or a station is more likely to attract tenants who want to move in straight away, while a three-bedroom house in a village is more likely to attract a family with its own furniture. Part-furnished, or offering to remove some items for the right tenant, can keep both groups interested.
From the tenant's side, furnished means a lower setting-up cost and an easier move, while unfurnished means they can use their own furniture and are not paying for someone else's.
Furnished lets were once associated with short fixed terms. That link no longer holds in England. Since 1 May 2026, all existing assured shorthold tenancies have become assured periodic tenancies, and new tenancies are periodic too. They run on a rolling basis and cannot have an end date. Tenants can end the tenancy by giving 2 months' notice, and you cannot use section 21. To end a tenancy you need a ground for possession and a section 8 notice, and in many cases the notice period is 4 months. You cannot use the grounds for selling or moving in during the first 12 months of a tenancy.
These rules apply whether or not the home is furnished. In practice, how long a tenant stays is now largely up to them, so it is worth furnishing (or not) for the kind of tenant you would be happy to keep for years.
Official rent statistics for Cambridge are split by number of bedrooms and property type, not by whether a home is furnished. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Price Index of Private Rents puts the average private rent in Cambridge at £1,805 a month in August 2026, up 1.8% on a year earlier. By size, the averages were:
In South Cambridgeshire the average was £1,408. These figures cover both new and existing tenancies, so they are not a measure of asking rents on new lets and will not tell you what furniture adds. Our article on the best areas in Cambridge for property investment uses the same figures to illustrate gross yields.
A few rules affect how you price a furnished let:
So the cost of furnishing has to be recovered through a rent you can justify against comparable homes, over a tenancy whose length you do not control. For a rental estimate on a specific property, our property investment team can compare it with recent lets nearby.
Furniture and appliance prices vary too widely for a typical figure to be useful, so get quotes for the specific items you would provide. When you budget, include:
Furnishing also adds to your safety duties, set out below. Our lettings service for landlords can manage inventories, safety checks and maintenance for you if you would rather not handle them yourself.
Upholstered furniture you provide in a let must comply with the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988. Trading Standards guidance says the rules apply to anyone who lets furnished residential accommodation as a business activity, including private landlords and letting agents, and that the same standards apply to new and second-hand furniture.
Look for the permanent label, which is usually sewn or stapled under the seat cushion or on the base, and on most furniture is headed "Carelessness causes fire". Mattresses and bed bases do not carry that label but may show compliance with BS 7177. Since 30 October 2025, manufacturers no longer have to attach a separate display (swing) label, but the permanent label is still required, including on second-hand furniture. Trading Standards advises that items with no label may not comply and should not be included in a let until you have evidence that they do.
The government consulted on a wider reform of these regulations from 31 March to 23 June 2026 and is analysing the responses, so the rules for new furniture may change. Check the current position before you buy for a let.
Most of these duties apply whether or not the home is furnished, but every appliance you supply adds to them.
In England you must have the fixed electrical installation (wiring, sockets, light fittings, the consumer unit and permanently connected equipment such as showers and extractor fans) inspected and tested by a qualified person at least every 5 years. You must give a copy of the report to existing tenants within 28 days of the inspection and to a new tenant before they move in, and carry out any remedial or further investigative work within 28 days, or sooner if the report says so. Councils can impose a financial penalty of up to £40,000 for breaches. Our guide to electrical certificates explains the report codes and what they mean.
The legal requirement to have landlord-supplied appliances checked at least every 5 years applies to social landlords. For private landlords there is no fixed testing interval for appliances such as a fridge, microwave or kettle, but anything you supply with the tenancy must be safe. Trading Standards guidance advises checking the goods you provide, keeping a record of what was checked, by whom and when, making sure plugs and sockets meet British Standards, and not supplying used electric blankets. Portable appliance testing is one way to show that you have checked.
Every gas appliance and flue you provide must be checked for safety by a Gas Safe registered engineer at least every 12 months, and before a new tenancy starts the check must have been done within the previous 12 months. You must give existing tenants a copy of the record within 28 days of the check, give new tenants a copy before they move in, and keep records until there have been two further checks. If a tenant brings their own gas cooker, you are responsible for parts of the associated installation and pipework but not for the appliance. If a previous tenant leaves a gas appliance behind, the Health and Safety Executive says you should remove it or have it checked, and make clear who owns it before you let the home again.
You must have at least one smoke alarm on each storey with a room used as living accommodation, and a carbon monoxide alarm in any such room with a fixed combustion appliance (other than a gas cooker). Alarms must be checked and working on the day a new tenancy begins. If you are told an alarm is faulty during the tenancy and it is, you must repair or replace it. The government's guidance suggests one way to record this is for the tenant to sign the inventory on the first day to confirm the alarms were tested.
An inventory matters more in a furnished let because there is more to record and more that can be disputed. A good one lists every item with its condition, supported by dated photographs, and is checked with the tenant at the start and end of the tenancy. Citizens Advice tells tenants that photos and check-in and check-out inventories are the kind of evidence to give a deposit dispute service. You cannot require the tenant to pay for an inventory service.
The rules on deposits in England are:
You cannot deduct for reasonable wear and tear. Citizens Advice gives a piece of furniture that has gradually worn as an example of wear and tear, and a carpet that has worn out over time cannot be replaced at the tenant's expense. Damage, such as a spill on a carpet, and items on the inventory that are lost or broken, such as cutlery or mugs, can be deducted. Because furniture wears with normal use, a furnished let should be priced and planned on the basis that you will replace items periodically.
Replacement of domestic items relief lets you deduct the cost of replacing furniture, furnishings, appliances and kitchenware from your rental income. It has applied to Income Tax since 6 April 2016, after the old wear and tear allowance ended, and it is available for unfurnished, part-furnished and fully furnished homes. The main conditions are:
Fixtures, such as baths, washbasins, toilets, boilers and fitted wardrobes, are not domestic items and do not qualify. Replacing them may instead be allowable as a repair: HMRC says renewing a bath, washbasin or toilet like for like is normally allowable, and gives replacing a broken-down boiler as an example of a repair. The cost of replacing small items such as cutlery, crockery, cushions and bed linen is also allowable if they are low value, have a short useful life and need replacing almost every year.
If you would like a view on which approach suits your property, our Cambridge lettings team can look at it with you, and tenants searching for a home can see what is available through our tenants' page.
This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Speak to a solicitor or a tax adviser about your own circumstances.
They may, but we have found no official figure for the difference. ONS rent statistics for Cambridge are not split by furnished and unfurnished, so compare recent lets of similar homes near yours. The average private rent in Cambridge was £1,805 a month in August 2026.
Upholstered furniture you provide, including sofas, armchairs, beds, headboards, mattresses, sofa beds, cushions and pillows, must comply with the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988. Bedding, carpets, curtains and furniture made before 1950 are not covered. Check for the permanent label.
You can claim replacement of domestic items relief when you replace furniture, furnishings, appliances or kitchenware, whether the home is let furnished or unfurnished. It does not cover the cost of furnishing a property for the first time, and an upgrade is limited to the cost of a like-for-like replacement.
Private landlords in England have no fixed legal interval for testing appliances, but anything you supply must be safe, and testing is one way to show you have checked. The fixed electrical installation must be inspected at least every 5 years, and gas appliances you provide must be checked every year.
No. The deposit is capped at 5 weeks' rent where the annual rent is below £50,000, whether or not the home is furnished. It must be protected in a government-approved scheme within 30 days.
Not as a fixed-term tenancy of someone's home. Since 1 May 2026 assured tenancies in England are periodic with no end date. Genuine holiday lets fall outside these rules. A tenant can leave by giving 2 months' notice, but you can only end the tenancy using a ground for possession.
