furnished or unfurnished.....

Not sure if this was already mentioned, I am moving to London at the end of August and need to find a flat for October onwards.  Will be staying in corporate housing during September.

Anyway, what would any of you recommend?  An unfurnished flat or a furnished flat? 

Regards,
bvamin

Unfurnished means you won't have any "white good", i.e., stove/oven, refrigerator, etc.  If you're happy to provide those things for yourself, go with unfurnished.  Otherwise, you may want to get something furnished or at the least "part-furnished", i.e., providing the white goods.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it's fairly standard for rented flats to come furnished.

Depends on how long you plan to stay, and of course what your taste and budget is, but it's nice to know that you don't have to worry about furniture right away!

I was shocked to see what's NOT offered here.  I'd always taken it for granted that there'd be fridge, dishwasher, washer, dryer, etc., in any apartment I rented, but that's not the case here.  DEFINITELY look into what's offered in the places you're looking at!

we've been here in london for 5 years, and have rented 3 unfurnished places. All 3 of them had the full complement of appliances; including microwave , washer and dryer. that seems to be the norm with our friends too; but we are all in 3 + bedroom houses so maybe that's the difference. i guess it just depends on where you are looking......

Our flat was listed as unfurnished too, and came with a washer/dryer, fridge and stove.  We had some friends that rented a flat in the same complex, from the same rental company, and theirs was furnished.  It came with beds, sofas, and table/chairs, plus the whitegoods.

Perhaps different letting agencies have different descriptions of furnished/unfurnished.  Best to double check what they offer!

Thanks for the replies. 

As of now I am looking in Northwest London (ie, West Hampstead, Swiss Cottage, Kilburn, etc.) and have been looking at properties on findaproperty.co.uk in this area.  It seems that most 1 BR flats are furnished, though there are unfurnished available.  As I will be working in Canary Wharf, this area is convenient as I just have to get on the Jubilee Line all the to work.  Unfortunately, £200 pw in this area does not get you much. 

bvamin

Nope £200 p/w in postcodes NW3 & NW6 does not get you a lot. Have you looked around Canary Wharf area itself, flats tend to be a bit cheaper around there. Also try looking in Loot

i don't know about prices these days, but we lived in a great place in wapping. the places right along the river can be really nice. we used an agent called phoenix on wapping lane. my husband works at canary wharf and had an easy commute; just changing at canada water, or walking.

when i first got here, i rented a furnished flat for the first six months, and then when i had a bit more time to look around, i eventually go with an unfurnished flat (still comes with fridge, oven, washer, etc.) In my experience, i saw so many furnished flat with really ugly furniture (and some in poor condition), on top of that, it is hard to find something that match your taste. So if you plan to stay here semi-long term, i would recommend looking into unfurnished flats. I went to IKEA and got most of everything i needed.

How long are you planning on staying in the UK? Because we have always pretty much planned on staying here forever (or at least for a very, very long time) we rented an unfurnished house and got the basics on Ikea and Ebay (mattress was the only thing we really splashed out on.) And now a year on we're very slowly replacing all that cheap stuff with nicer pieces from auctions, etc. But our rental does include white goods (fridge, freezer, washing machine, oven, hob, and even an old beat up microwave) so maybe we lucked out in that respect.

Well, as I am moving back as a local, for the forseeable future I will be in the UK.

bvamin