In real estate, we sometimes refer to the rental market as the Wild West. While it is heavily regulated, rentals involve a different and sometimes overlapping set of rules governing landlords, tenants and real estate agents. This leads to confusion and differences in approaches to handling rental listings and reviewing and approving tenants.
If a landlord chooses to rent a property outside of the MLS system and not use agents to represent them or tenants, then things can get even messier. There are dozens of free or paid sites for rental properties that operate outside of the purview of organized real estate. With no real estate agent involved – and therefore not the same requirements on disclosure, honesty or consumer protection – there are lots of stories about scams and misrepresentation in that part of the rental market.
If the rental market as a whole is the wild west, then furnished rentals are the town where the sheriff is missing, the saloon is on fire and horses are running down people in the street.
Let’s talk about how furnished rentals work and the challenges inherent in such transactions.
More stuff, more money?
Furnishing a rental property seems like a fairly obvious way to make more money. Put in a couch, a bed, a television and some dishes, then charge the tenant more each month. Simple.
Except the furniture costs money, it needs to be maintained and oh, right, it actually eliminates a large portion of the tenants who would otherwise consider the property. So, perhaps not quite that simple.
Many landlords are drawn to owning income properties because they can be relatively passive investments. With the help of your trusty real estate agent, you find a tenant, they move in and rental income starts flowing. Eventually they move out and the process takes place again. It involves some effort each time a vacancy is coming up, but if the right tenant is in place, during tenancy it can be largely passive.
With furnished rentals, there is the additional challenge of having to manage both the initial furnishing of the property plus dealing with any issues during the tenancy. If you’re renting an unfurnished property, you (or your property manager) will get calls if the fridge breaks or the AC stops working, but if their couch starts to sag or they decide they need a home office, it’s not your problem. The landlord of a furnished rental has to deal with questions or issues related to the furniture in the property and the tricky question of standards often comes into play.
If you look around your home, you probably have some furnishings you’ll replace at some point, but only when you feel like it. That pan that doesn’t have much of the non-stick left on it may still get used, and you just put a blanket over that stain on the couch. It is a universal truth that when someone doesn’t have to pay for something to be fixed, their standards rise and their patience for waiting drops.
Given the additional challenges in renting out a furnished property, do many people do it?
It’s about 15% to 20% of the rental market.
As of July 17, 2026, there are 6,348 properties for rent in Toronto. The vast majority of those are available unfurnished, with about 85% being listed as not coming with any furniture. The remaining 15% are listed as either partially furnished or furnished.
Put another way, if you’re looking for a place to rent, you’ve got over 5,300 options in the city if you’re bringing your own furniture and about 1,000 if you want it to come furnished.
As is indicated by the existence of “partially furnished” as well as “furnished”, there is no universally understood definition of what a furnished place includes. One landlord may describe a unit as furnished because it contains a bed, a sofa and a dining table. Another may provide furniture, linens, cookware, dishes, small appliances, a television, artwork and everything else a tenant needs apart from their clothing and toothbrush. Those are not the same product.
There are many different attempts to establish what is being offered by using particular descriptions. A fully furnished property logically has more than a furnished property, but what specifically? Is a turn-key furnished property even more than fully furnished, or a bit less? Where does partially furnished come into play? Does that mean there is whatever the landlord let the previous tenant leave, or is it beds and couches, but not tables?
The issue of standards comes into play again here, because what is a fully furnished unit to one person may be woefully under furnished to another. With no universally agreed upon definition of the differences between the types of furnished properties, misunderstandings and unmet expectations are commonplace.
To sum it up, the landlord has not simply rented a unit to a tenant. In essence they have entered the hospitality business, just without room service or the tiny bottles of shampoo.
If we’re clear on the challenges of renting out furnished properties, the question becomes, do those landlords who take the plunge make a killing?
The few, the proud, the marginally more expensive.
Even if only 15% to 20% of the rental market are comprised of furnished properties, there has to be a reason in the form of additional rent for a landlord to take on the extra work.
When we look at the asking rent for the properties currently on the market that we described above, we see it isn’t much of a premium.
- Unfurnished rentals (5,347 of them) are asking an average of $2,762 per month.
- Furnished rentals (720 of them) are asking about 7% more on average, or $2,950 per month.
- Partially furnished rentals (just 281 of them) are actually asking about 4% less! Their average list price is $2,650, so about $110 less than the average price for an unfurnished unit.
This is just one snapshot of what we’re currently seeing in Toronto and we’d definitely urge caution before assuming that holds true in other markets or at other times.
In fact, the available Canadian data on furnished rentals are far less decisive than we would like.
Back in 2021, the good folks at Rentals.ca examined apartment and condominium listings and found that furnished units in Ontario had an average asking rent 8% higher than unfurnished units. That’s pretty close to what we found in our review but when they looked at it on a per-square-foot basis, the difference was 14%. Keep in mind that data was from early 2021 and COVID was still very much impacting the rental market.
Another data source comes from the website liv.rent, which reported that in June 2026, furnished one-bedroom units in Toronto averaged $1,929 per month, while unfurnished units averaged $1,970. That’s a far cry from a 7% to 8% premium and in general, we believe that the relationship changes from month to month.
Statistics Canada found that furniture was included in only 4% of Canadian rents in its 2021 Canadian Housing Survey. The study also warned that rents are difficult to compare without accounting for differences in the property, location and everything included in the monthly payment.
In our experience, sometimes furnished units show a modest premium and sometimes they show a discount. That does not mean that furniture has no value, but it does tell us that a straight comparison between all furnished and unfurnished listings can be misleading.
After all, the furnished units may be located in different neighbourhoods than where unfurnished units are located. They may be smaller, larger, newer or older than what’s in the unfurnished rental market. They may include utilities, parking or internet at a higher rate than unfurnished rentals, or they may not.
In other words, there is no reliable rule that says adding furniture increases the rent by 7% or any other convenient number. Unfortunately, the market is seldom that cooperative. We say “the” market, but make no mistake, the furnished rental market is fundamentally a different market than the unfurnished rental market.
Different tenants, different needs, different length of stay.
The type of tenant who is interested in a furnished rental is very different than someone interested in an unfurnished rental. While there may be the occasional person who is open to either, it is typically a binary situation – either you have furniture or you need it.
In our experience, there are a number of different reasons why some tenants look for a place that comes furnished.
- Corporate transferees
- People working in the GTA on temporary assignments
- Newcomers who have not yet purchased furniture
- People completing renovations to their own homes
- Couples who have recently separated
- Students or faculty at nearby schools
- Tenants who expect to move again within a relatively short period
Renting a furnished unit is very much a temporary situation. While there are many cases of renters being at the same place for years or even decades, this doesn’t happen in the furnished rental market. While not all furnished rental units are available for short-term (one month or longer) rentals, they do share a prospective tenant pool in common with short-term rentals.
These renters may be willing to pay more for a furnished place because furnishing a home for a temporary stay makes little financial sense. After all, buying a sofa, mattress, dining table and basic household supplies is expensive and so is moving them.
While there are definitely challenges with renting out a furnished property, it can be a smart approach if handled correctly and everything aligns. We’ve helped a number of landlord clients with furnished rentals and we know the hurdles and how to handle them. Whether it’s a prospective tenant asking if the landlord won’t just remove the furniture (completely or in part), the move in inspection and inventory report or the suitability of certain properties (and unsuitability of others!) we’ve dealt with it all. If you’re considering renting out a furnished property, or you’re looking to rent one yourself, get in touch with us!
