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1 Furnish Your Property To Appeal to All Likely Tenants

If you are not very confident of renting to a niche market such as young professional men, you should aim to make your rental property appeal to as many potential tenants as possible. This is because the more people there are who like the property, the more likely it is that one of the first viewers will rent it and the property will therefore be empty for less time in-between tenants.

One of the best ways of making your property appeal to the majority of prospective tenants is to keep the furniture, the colour schemes and the ornaments/pictures (if any) neutral. You might think that black furniture, black walls and black carpets are great, but this type of individuality is likely to make your property rent less quickly. You are also likely to achieve less rent.

As approximately half of all potential tenants are male and half are female, do not make your rental property too masculine or too girly. As potential tenants can be young singles in their twenties, couples in their thirties who are relocating or people in their fifties who have just got divorced, do not choose furnishings that are so cutting edge that they will alienate the older age group or so old-fashioned that they will alienate the younger people.

Modern wooden furniture of a fairly conventional design is likely to appeal to both sexes and most ages. Conventional cream / magnolia walls, fawn carpets and odd touches of colours in the accessories are also likely to appeal to most people.

2 Use Warm, Light Colours

If you use warm colours for furniture and accessories, it is easier to make your property seem welcoming. Warm colours can also make north-facing rooms seem more inviting. Note that it is often not the colour that is important but the shade of the colour. For example a cream sofa can be a creamy/greeny shade or a creamy/reddy shade - the sofa with the green tinge to it will be harder to team up with warm coloured accessories.

Remember that light colours can make a small room look larger whereas darker colours can crowd the same room. Dark colours can also make a property appear more masculine. If you consider that darker sofas and chair coverings are more practical than light ones, then consider teaming this with light wooden furniture such as birch or beech.

3 Use Coordinating Furniture

Furnish your rental property with coordinating furniture and coordinating colours. Flats or houses furnished with a hotchpotch of jumble sale furniture are likely to rent slower and for less money that those that have a cohesive look and feel.

4 Consider the Needs of the Tenant

Consider what furniture tenants will need to live in your property comfortably and then supply the basics. Do not over-furnish and clutter up the house or flat with twenty different glass vases, but do ensure that your property meets basic needs such as storage space (cupboard space in the kitchen, wardrobe and drawer space in the bedrooms, maybe a bookcase in the lounge), fridge AND freezer space, washing AND drying facilities, a dining table and clean, comfortable beds and sofas.

Janice is the owner of a number of rental flats and houses. Two recent blog posts are our Ipswich rental flats and using an ARLA agent when renting property.