Furnished or Bare? The Real Maths for a 6–12 Month Phuket Rental

Almost every long-stay renter in Phuket hits the same fork in the road: the furnished place that costs more every month, or the bare place that is cheaper but empty. On a two-week holiday the answer is obvious. On a 6–12 month stay, the maths gets interesting — because furnishing a home in Thailand is cheaper than most people expect, selling it on at the end is easier than most people expect, and the rent gap between furnished and unfurnished is often wide enough to pay for the furniture outright. Here is how to work it out properly.

The rent gap, in real numbers

For comparable units in the same building or village, an unfurnished rental in Phuket typically runs 20–35% below the furnished price. On a two-bedroom condo renting furnished at ฿35,000 a month, the bare equivalent might be ฿25,000–28,000. That is a saving of roughly ฿7,000–10,000 every month — ฿84,000–120,000 across a year.

Houses show a similar pattern, sometimes wider, because furnishing a three-bedroom house to a standard expats accept is genuinely expensive for a landlord. The longer your stay, the more that monthly gap compounds in your favour if you furnish yourself — and the less it matters if you don't.

What furnishing a place yourself actually costs

Phuket is well set up for this. Between the big home stores on the bypass road, Thai furniture shops, and the very active second-hand market, a comfortable one-off setup for a two-bedroom place looks roughly like this:

• Buying new, mid-range: sofa, beds and mattresses, wardrobes, dining set, desk, curtains, kitchen basics, TV — about ฿120,000–200,000.
• Buying second-hand: the same list sourced from departing expats and furniture resellers — about ฿50,000–90,000, often including nearly new pieces.
• The essentials-only version: beds, sofa, table, chairs, and kitchen basics — ฿35,000–60,000, and you live perfectly well.

Then comes the part people forget: you can sell it all when you leave. Phuket has a constant flow of arriving expats, and good second-hand furniture moves quickly through Facebook groups and marketplace listings. Realistically you recover 40–60% of what you paid for decent pieces, and sometimes more on quality items. Your true furnishing cost is what you paid minus what you get back.

What "furnished" usually includes in Phuket

Standards vary more than the listings suggest. A typical furnished Phuket rental includes beds with bedding, a sofa, dining set, TV, fridge, washing machine, air conditioning in the bedrooms and living room, basic kitchenware, and curtains. What it often does not include: a proper desk and office chair, good knives and pans, extra storage, a cot or children's items, and sometimes small things like a kettle or iron.

When you view a furnished place, open the cupboards. Count the plates. The gap between "furnished" in the advert and furnished enough to live in for a year is where small frustrations grow. If items are missing, ask before signing — landlords will often add a desk or a washing machine to secure a 12-month tenant.

The break-even, by stay length

The simple way to think about it: take the monthly rent gap, and compare it with your net furnishing cost (what you spend minus what you'll recover at the end).

• Staying 6 months: the rent gap might total ฿42,000–60,000. Furnishing even cheaply and reselling nets out around ฿25,000–50,000 spent. It is roughly a wash — furnished usually wins on convenience alone.
• Staying 9 months: the gap reaches ฿63,000–90,000. Self-furnishing starts to come out clearly ahead, especially buying second-hand.
• Staying 12 months or more: the gap is ฿84,000–120,000 against a net furnishing cost of perhaps ฿30,000–70,000. Bare wins the maths comfortably, and you lived with furniture you chose.

The hidden costs of the bare route: a week or two of shopping and deliveries at the start, and a week of selling at the end. If your time is precious or your arrival is chaotic — new job, kids starting school — that convenience has real value too.

Who each option suits

Choose furnished if your stay is six months or less, you arrive straight into work or a school term, you dislike shopping and logistics, or you want the landlord responsible for every appliance that breaks — in a furnished rental, repairs to supplied items are normally the landlord's problem.

Choose bare if you are staying a year or more, you are particular about your bed, desk and chair, you enjoy the second-hand hunt, or the rent gap on the specific home you love is unusually wide.

The middle ground: partial furnish

The option many long-stay renters miss is negotiating a part-furnished deal. Landlords with an empty property often prefer a reliable 12-month tenant to a slightly higher rent, and many will agree to add specific items — a washing machine, a better mattress, a desk, blackout curtains — as part of the deal, or to furnish the place in exchange for a longer lease or rent paid a few months ahead. Ask precisely, item by item, and get the agreed list written into the lease. A half-way house on price with the items that matter to you is often the best value on the island.

Deposits and condition

Furnished rentals carry more condition risk for both sides. Expect a deposit of two months' rent on a well-furnished place versus one month on a bare one, and a proper inventory with photos at check-in — do it carefully, together, and message the photos to each other so there is a dated record. With a bare rental, your main condition duties are walls, paint, and the fixtures that came with the property, which makes the check-out conversation much simpler.

Neither answer is wrong. Run the gap on the actual homes you are choosing between, be honest about your stay length, and let the numbers — not the showroom shine — decide.

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About Jay & Scott — Jay and Scott are travelers and writers living in Thailand. We enjoy traveling around Thailand — the food, the beaches, the small towns — and writing about it as we go. Back home in Phuket we run Patong Harbor View Condominium, our long-stay condo rentals in Patong. Have a look at the room photos, then come stay a while: www.phvcondo.com.