A lot of the long-term villa rentals we handle around Barcelona and Maresme come unfurnished, and that catches people arriving from abroad completely off guard. They budget for rent, the deposit and the movers, then discover the house has light fittings and nothing else. So before you sign anything, it's worth working out what furnishing it will cost and whether the furnished alternative is actually the cheaper route.
In Spanish listings you'll see the two words constantly: amueblado and sin amueblar. On the long-term market, which is what the Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos governs, unfurnished is still the default for houses, especially villas. Owners buy to rent out and often stop at white goods. On short-term and seasonal lets the position reverses and furnished is the standard, which is the market most people see first when they search online and then wonder why nothing long-term looks the same.
One useful distinction when you're negotiating: furnished in Spain does not always mean what it means elsewhere. Sometimes it's a full house, sometimes it's a sofa, a table and a bed per room. Read the inventory before you assume anything. Our guide to what a Spanish rental contract must include covers the inventory list and why you should photograph it.
Landlords charge more for a furnished house, and in the current market the gap is roughly 10 to 25 percent on the monthly rent. Across Spain that works out to somewhere around €50 to €200 extra a month for an apartment. In the villa segment on this coast it is bigger in absolute terms, because there is more furniture to supply. Expect €300 to €600 extra a month for a fully furnished family house with a pool and a garden, sometimes more if the furniture is genuinely good rather than bought to fill space.
These are the numbers we see from clients who arrive with a container or nothing at all, and from the invoices they send us afterwards. They assume reasonable mid-market quality, the sort that lasts five years of family life.
Where people blow the budget is never the sofa. It's the thing nobody puts on the list. Curtains or blinds for every window in a house with a lot of windows. Lamps, because Spanish houses are often short on ceiling lights. Rugs, because the floors are tile and unforgiving. Garden tools, a barbecue, a second fridge, an ironing board, extension leads, the hundred small things you owned for years and don't remember buying.
Most families we work with mix three sources, and the mix keeps the total down. IKEA and JYSK handle the volume items cheaply and deliver. Kave Home, Maisons du Monde and El Corte Inglés cover the pieces you actually want to look at. Conforama and outlets fill the gaps. Then Wallapop and Milanuncios, plus the local Facebook groups for each town, cover almost everything else second-hand, often at a third of the price for furniture that was barely used. In a rental, second-hand makes particular sense, because you are going to move it again.
Prices include 21% IVA, which is not always obvious on the shelf label in smaller shops. Delivery and assembly are usually charged separately and are not trivial for a large house. If you're ordering in August, expect to wait.
Spain has a small but real furniture rental market, mostly aimed at companies relocating staff, landlords staging properties and people on twelve to twenty-four month assignments. Packages for a small apartment typically start around €150 to €250 a month and climb with the size of the home and the quality of the pieces. For a full villa expect to pay several hundred euros a month, and to struggle to find a supplier who will do it outside the main cities. It works, but the market is thinner than in the US or the UK, so start the search early.
The advantage is obvious. You don't buy anything you'll have to sell in two years, and the supplier deals with delivery, damage and removal. The catch is that over a three-year stay you can easily pay the purchase price of the furniture and end up with nothing to show for it.
The rule of thumb is that a stay of under about three years usually favours furnished, and a stay beyond five years usually favours unfurnished, with buying your own. In between, it's a genuine toss-up and depends on the furnished premium you're being asked for. A €500 a month premium over three years is €18,000, which is more than enough to furnish a four-bedroom villa yourself, and some of that furniture comes with you when you leave. Run that multiplication before you decide, because the monthly number hides the annual one.
There is a third option people forget: take the unfurnished house and negotiate. Some owners will buy furniture for a longer commitment, either taking it out of the rent or splitting the cost. It is a normal conversation, and in a slow month it often works.
If you'd rather arrive to a house that works on day one, we keep a list of furnished and partly furnished villas across Maresme and Barcelona, and we can tell you before you view what's included and what you'll still need to buy.
Tell us your move-in date, the size of the household and how long you plan to stay. We'll send back villas that are furnished or can be furnished, and a realistic budget for the rest.
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