Furnished or unfurnished: the comparison people get wrong

A furnished apartment in Luxembourg commonly advertises at a visibly higher monthly figure than an equivalent unfurnished one, and most people stop the analysis there. That comparison is misleading in both directions. Furnishing a flat costs a substantial sum before you have slept in it, an unfurnished rent excludes charges that a furnished rent frequently includes, and the two options carry very different exit costs. Done properly, the calculation depends almost entirely on how long you intend to stay.

What the law says about the difference

The rent ceiling of 5 per cent of invested capital applies to residential lettings generally, and the law expressly allows a supplement for furniture where the dwelling is let furnished. The premium in the furnished segment is therefore not a loophole; it is a recognised supplement for the provision of movable property.

The practical consequence for a tenant is that you should be able to see what you are paying for. A furnished let with three items of flat-pack furniture and a mattress is charging a furniture supplement for very little furniture.

The line-by-line comparison

Take a two-bedroom apartment of around 75 square metres in a mid-priced district. Unfurnished, the advertised rent commonly runs €1,700 to €2,200 per month excluding charges. Furnished, the figure is higher, and frequently includes charges. The items to line up:

• Rent. Compare like with like, which means adding the monthly charges provision to the unfurnished figure before comparing.
• Charges. In an unfurnished let these are usually a monthly provision reconciled annually, and the reconciliation can produce a bill. In a furnished let they are frequently inside the rent, with no reconciliation.
• Utilities and internet. Contracts to open, connection lead times and standing charges in an unfurnished let. Usually included and already working in a furnished one.
• The furniture itself. A bed and mattress, a sofa, a table and chairs, wardrobes, lighting, curtains, kitchen equipment and white goods. Furnishing a two-bedroom apartment to a decent standard is a four-figure exercise at minimum and frequently a five-figure one.
• Delivery and assembly time. Six to eight weeks is normal for made-to-order furniture in the Greater Region, and longer for upholstery.
• Exit costs. Selling or moving furniture at the end of a stay, at a loss, or paying to ship it.

The break-even is usually somewhere between eighteen months and three years, depending on how well you furnish and how much of it you keep afterwards. Below that, furnished is generally cheaper in total. Above it, unfurnished usually wins.

The non-financial arguments

For furnished:

• You can move in on the day you arrive, with luggage.
• No utility contracts, no installation appointments, no charges reconciliation.
• Appliances are the landlord's responsibility when they fail.
• Shorter commitments are more readily available, which matters when you do not yet know which side of the city you will work on.
• It resolves the arrival deadlock, since a furnished let can usually be secured without a Luxembourg bank account already open.

For unfurnished:

• The apartment is yours to arrange, which after two years matters more than people expect.
• You own the furniture, and it moves with you to the next flat and eventually to a property you buy.
• Longer leases and greater stability.
• The quality is what you choose rather than what was cheapest to install.

What to check in a furnished let

• The inventory, in detail. Every item, its condition, photographed. This is what the deposit is settled against.
• What exactly is included in the rent. Heating, water, electricity, internet, building charges. Get it in writing, item by item.
• The mattress. Ask when it was bought. You will spend a third of your tenancy on it.
• Who repairs the appliances, and how quickly.
• Whether you may remove or store any of the furniture if you have your own.
• Storage. Furnished apartments are frequently short of it, because the space has been used for furniture.

The middle option

A part-furnished let, typically with the kitchen fitted, white goods installed and the built-in wardrobes present but no soft furniture, is common in Luxembourg and is often the best answer for a stay of two to four years. The most expensive and least portable items are provided, and the pieces that make a home yours are not.

When you view an unfurnished apartment, ask specifically what stays. A fitted kitchen with appliances is worth several thousand euros of avoided expenditure, and it is frequently not mentioned in the advertisement.

A worked comparison for a two-year stay

Take a professional arriving on a two-year contract, choosing between a furnished one-bedroom and the same apartment unfurnished. The unfurnished side has to carry costs the advertised rent does not show.

• The furniture. Bed and mattress, sofa, dining table and chairs, wardrobe, desk, lighting, curtains, kitchen equipment. Bought sensibly rather than cheaply, this is a substantial four-figure outlay before the first night.
• White goods, where the kitchen is not fitted. Washing machine, fridge, oven.
• Charges. A monthly provision plus an annual reconciliation that can produce a bill in year two.
• Utilities and internet, with standing charges, connection fees and installation lead times.
• The exit. Selling furniture at a loss, or shipping it.

Against that, the furnished premium over two years is a defined monthly amount with no reconciliation and no residual. For a stay of two years the furnished option is usually the cheaper total, and always the simpler one. For five years the answer reverses, and it reverses decisively.

Three questions we are asked

Is furnished always more expensive per month?

Almost always on the headline figure, and frequently not once charges, utilities and internet are added to the unfurnished side. Compare all-in monthly cost rather than advertised rent, and the gap narrows considerably.

Can I negotiate a furnished rent down if I do not need all the furniture?

Sometimes, particularly if you are taking a longer commitment and the landlord can store the items. It is worth asking. What is usually not negotiable is removing furniture the landlord has nowhere to put.

What if I arrive furnished and want to switch after a year?

That is the normal pattern, and it is a sensible one. Take a furnished let for the first year while you establish where you work and which district suits you, then move to an unfurnished apartment with a longer lease once you know. The cost of one extra move is small against the cost of a three-year lease in the wrong place.

How we handle this

We let both, and we will tell you honestly which suits your stay. For anyone here on a first contract of two years or less, furnished is almost always the cheaper answer once everything is counted.

Current availability is on our rentals page .

One further consideration that is easy to miss. Furnished lets in Luxembourg are concentrated in the districts with the deepest arrival market, principally Bonnevoie, the Gare quarter, Hollerich and Kirchberg, while the unfurnished stock is spread across the whole city and the surrounding communes. Choosing furnished therefore narrows the geography as well as the commitment, and for a household that already knows it wants a particular district or a particular school catchment, that constraint can matter more than the monthly figure.

A useful editorial test for how we handle this is to look at the consequence rather than the headline feature.

For what the law says about the difference, note what you can see, what you can measure, what you need to ask and what would be expensive to change.

When comparing two options on how we handle this, avoid scoring them only on the feature named in the title. For the question raised by “How we handle this”, the useful detail is not a generic list of advantages.

A stronger reading of how we handle this starts by asking what would change for the resident on an ordinary weekday.