Furnishing a room to let: what actually raises the rent

A furnished room in Luxembourg City lets in a market where tenants view three or four options in a week and decide quickly, often from photographs before they arrive. The difference between a room that lets in four days and one that sits empty for six weeks is rarely the square metres and almost never the postcode. It is a short list of specific things, and most landlords spend their budget on the wrong half of it.

What tenants actually check

Across viewings, the questions arrive in a consistent order, and it is not the order landlords expect.

• Is the bed a real bed? A 140 centimetre double with a decent mattress is the dividing line between a room that adults will live in and one they will tolerate for three months.
• Where do my clothes go? Hanging space, not a chest of drawers.
• Can I work in here? A desk with a chair that is not the bed.
• Is the internet good? Asked at almost every viewing, and increasingly the first question.
• What does it actually cost per month? All in, including everything.
• Who else lives here? The composition of the apartment matters more to a tenant than the finish of the room.

Nobody has ever asked about the colour of the cushions. Spend accordingly.

The specification that works

The bed

A 140 by 200 bed where the room allows, 90 by 200 only in a genuinely small room. A slatted base and a mattress bought this decade. A mattress protector, because it protects your investment and is replaced between tenants for a few euros. A headboard, which costs little and is the difference between a bedroom and a dormitory in a photograph.

Storage

A wardrobe with a hanging rail of at least 80 centimetres and a shelf above, plus two or three drawers. Full height where possible. This is the item tenants complain about most often after moving in, and it is the one most frequently under-specified.

The desk

A desk of at least 100 by 60 centimetres, positioned so the light comes from the side rather than behind the screen, with a proper task chair. Since hybrid working became normal, a room without a workable desk is a materially inferior product in this market.

Light

A ceiling fitting with a warm dimmable bulb, a bedside lamp, and a desk lamp. Three sources. This costs very little and it is the single clearest difference between a room that photographs well and one that does not.

Textiles

Blackout curtains or a blackout blind, which is a genuine requirement rather than a nicety in summer. A rug if the floor is hard. Neutral bedding, because it photographs cleanly and does not date.

The small things that get mentioned

• A full-length mirror.
• Two accessible power sockets near the bed and two near the desk, with a multi-socket where the building is short.
• A lockable door, and a key that works.
• A bin.
• Hooks behind the door.

What raises the rent, and what does not

Raises it: a real double bed, full-height hanging storage, a usable desk, fast and reliable internet, a clearly all-inclusive monthly figure, a well-kept kitchen and bathroom in the shared parts, and a room that is genuinely light.

Does not raise it: expensive decorative objects, a television in the room, feature wallpaper, designer furniture that will be damaged, and anything the tenant cannot use.

Lowers it, quietly: a mattress that is visibly old, a wardrobe too shallow for a coat hanger, a single overhead light at 4000K, and photographs taken at night.

The shared parts decide the letting

A tenant chooses a room and lives in an apartment. The kitchen and the bathroom carry most of the decision, and they are where the money is best spent in a shared let.

• A kitchen with enough storage for each tenant to have a designated cupboard and a shelf in the fridge. This prevents more disputes than any house rule.
• A dishwasher. In a shared apartment it is the highest-value single appliance and it prevents the most common source of friction.
• A washing machine inside the apartment rather than in a communal basement.
• A second bathroom or a separate WC transforms the letting economics of any apartment with three or more rooms.
• Under-cabinet lighting and a well-lit bathroom mirror, for the same reasons as everywhere else.

Photographing it properly

Most rooms are let from photographs before anyone arrives.

• Shoot in daylight, with all the lamps on as well.
• Shoot from the corner at about chest height, showing two walls, and include the window.
• Make the bed properly and remove everything personal.
• Photograph the kitchen and the bathroom too. A listing with only the room raises the question of what is being hidden.
• State the monthly figure all-inclusive and say what it includes.

The maths behind the specification

Furnishing a room properly is a commercial decision, and it is worth doing the arithmetic rather than treating it as a matter of taste.

• The cost of a void. A room standing empty for six weeks costs roughly a month and a half of rent, which in Luxembourg City is a substantial sum. That figure is usually larger than the entire difference between a poor specification and a good one.
• The furniture is amortised, not spent. A bed, a wardrobe and a desk serve several tenancies. Spread across three or four years, the monthly cost of furnishing a room well is small relative to the rent it supports.
• Turnover is the real expense. A tenant who stays two years costs far less than four tenants who stay six months each. Specification affects retention, and retention is where the money is.
• Photographs determine the enquiry volume. The lighting and the styling that make a room photograph well cost very little and directly affect how many people ask to view.

The question is not what the furniture costs, it is what an empty room costs. Once that comparison is on the table, the specification argues for itself.

Three questions we are asked

How much furniture is too much?

If a tenant cannot walk from the door to the window without turning sideways, the room is over-furnished. Bed, wardrobe, desk, chair, bedside table, lamp. Anything beyond that should earn its floor area.

Is it worth including bills in the rent?

In a shared apartment, almost always. An all-inclusive figure is easier to advertise, easier to compare and removes the annual charges reconciliation as a source of dispute. It also lets quicker, because the tenant knows the real monthly cost immediately.

New furniture or good second-hand?

Buy the mattress new, without exception. Everything else can be good second-hand if it is solid, clean and matched. A room furnished from three mismatched sources photographs badly regardless of the quality of each piece.

Where this fits in a Luxembourg apartment

This is the specification we apply to the rooms we manage, and it is why they let quickly. If you own an apartment you are considering letting by the room, send us the floor plan and we will tell you what it would take and what it would achieve.

In furnishing a room to let: what actually raises the rent, the section on the specification that works should end with a test the reader can actually perform.

Time is the hidden unit behind the specification that works. For the question raised by “The specification that works”, the useful detail is not a generic list of advantages.

For the shared parts decide the letting, note what you can see, what you can measure, what you need to ask and what would be expensive to change. For the question raised by “The specification that works”, the useful detail is not a generic list of advantages.

A feature connected to what raises the rent, and what does not should also survive a budget check. For the question raised by “What raises the rent, and what does not”, the useful detail is not a generic list of advantages.

A stronger reading of the shared parts decide the letting starts by asking what would change for the resident on an ordinary weekday.