Your furnished dwelling might be amazing - just not for the 99% of people who would never rent it

Written By Andreas Delis

Furnished Rentals: A Small Market to Begin With

Let’s start with a simple example.
Imagine you are offering the following:

Available January 15th | 7–8 months | Fully furnished | 1 bedroom + 1 therapy room

A great apartment — but how many people are looking for exactly those conditions?

Here is the reality:

  • On Homegate today, there are roughly 5x more listings for unfurnished apartments than furnished ones (in the 3–4.5 room category).

  • That means that by listing a furnished home, you’re entering a niche market that is only one-fifth the size of the regular rental market.

And within that already small market, matching becomes even more restrictive:

  • Your availability window must match someone’s temporary need.

  • Your room setup must align with their lifestyle.

  • Your interior style must resonate with their taste.

  • Your “therapy room” has to be something they can personally use.

All of this dramatically narrows the number of people who can imagine your place as a fit.

That’s why even great apartments stay unrented.

The Built-In Challenges of Furnished Rentals

Furnished apartments offer convenience, character and flexibility — but they also come with three structural challenges:

1. Rigid availability windows

If you offer your home from January to August, your ideal tenant must also be looking for January to August.

2. Fixed room configurations

Your second room might be a therapy room today — but your future tenant may need a bedroom, a children’s room, or an office instead.

3. Personal taste matters

That interior style you love?
It won’t appeal to everyone.

These factors reduce your accessible market and increase the risk of vacancy.

How SMART DEPART Expands Your Accessible Market

Instead of searching for “the one perfect tenant”, SMART DEPART increases the number of possible tenants — making your rental dramatically easier, more flexible and more profitable.

We do this in two main ways:

1️⃣ Flexibility in Length of Stay

With SMART DEPART, you don’t need a single tenant to occupy your full absence.
We can:

  • find successive tenants,

  • manage all handovers,

  • prepare the home between stays,

  • handle cleaning and upkeep.

This means your offering can match multiple shorter-term needs instead of one long-term one.

Your rental window becomes adaptable — and far more people qualify.

2️⃣ Flexibility in Room Setup

Most furnished rentals keep the room setup “as is”.
SMART DEPART changes that.

We can adapt your second room depending on who is moving in:

  • Office → kid’s room

  • Therapy room → bedroom

  • Bedroom → home office

This simple shift makes your home suitable for a significantly wider audience without compromising your belongings or your comfort when you return.

The Outcome: Lower Risk, Higher Demand, Better Tenants

By increasing:

  • the number of matching rental windows,

  • the number of applicable room layouts,

  • and the number of potential tenant groups,

…your apartment becomes attractive to a much larger segment of the mid-term rental market.

The result?

  • Higher demand

  • Better tenant fit

  • Less vacancy

  • More secure rental income

  • A home that works smarter while you’re away

This is exactly what SMART DEPART was built for.

Andreas Delis