Furnished apartments in Germany cost 40% more. Here's what expats are doing instead.

You land in Germany, you have 30 days on a temporary address, and you need a flat. The obvious move seems to be a furnished apartment — everything's already there, you sign and move in. Simple. Except furnished rentals in Berlin, Munich, and Frankfurt are running anywhere from 35–45% above comparable unfurnished units right now, according to data from Immoscout24 and Wohnungsbörse. In Munich, that gap can push your monthly rent from €1,400 to nearly €1,950 for the same square footage in the same neighborhood. That difference adds up to over €6,500 a year you're paying purely for someone else's IKEA furniture and a coffee maker you didn't choose. A growing number of expats are running the numbers and making a different call: take the empty flat, and rent the furniture separately.

Why furnished apartments carry such a high premium

Landlords aren't pricing furnished apartments based on what the furniture actually cost them. They're pricing for convenience — the assumption that an international arrival has no alternative and no time. Furnished inventory is also scarcer, which gives landlords pricing power regardless of furniture quality. Most furnished apartments in German cities are listed on short-term platforms where weekly rates compound fast. There's also a legal angle. Under German tenancy law ( Mietrecht ), standard long-term leases come with tenant protections that constrain how high rent can go in regulated cities. Furnished short-term rentals often sidestep these protections entirely, operating under different contract structures. Less protection, higher price — for the tenant.

What the alternative actually looks like

Renting an unfurnished apartment and filling it through a furniture rental service isn't a new concept, but it's gotten significantly more practical. Services like UniRents deliver and set up everything — bed, sofa, desk, kitchen basics, Wi-Fi router — within days of your move-in. You're not assembling anything. You're not buying things you'll have to resell or abandon when you leave. A realistic furnished package for a one-bedroom through UniRents runs around €100–€150 per month depending on what you add. Stack that on top of an unfurnished rent and you're still well under what a comparable furnished apartment would cost. The math isn't close. Beyond cost, there's a flexibility argument. With a furnished apartment, you're locked into whatever the landlord bought. With a rental setup, you can swap items, add a standing desk if you're working from home, or return a piece that doesn't fit the space. The apartment becomes yours in a way a furnished rental never really is.

Making the space feel like yours — not a hotel room

One thing expats consistently report about furnished rentals: they feel temporary in a way that makes it harder to settle in. Generic furniture, mismatched pieces, someone else's aesthetic. That psychological effect is real, and it matters more than people expect when you're already adjusting to a new city and a new routine. When you control what goes into the space — even through rentals — you can actually design for how you live. That might mean: • Adding a proper monitor setup if you're working remotely • Getting a real dining table instead of a folding one • Choosing a bed frame and mattress that work for you, not whoever rented the flat before • Bringing in a decent speaker, an air purifier, a coffee machine worth using UniRents lets you build this out incrementally. Start with the essentials on day one, add the comfort layer once you know what the space needs. Nothing gets shipped back to another country when you leave — it all goes back through the service.

The practical case for an empty flat

If you're relocating to Berlin, Munich, or Frankfurt for six months to two years, the cost math alone makes furnished apartments hard to justify. Add the flexibility of a customizable setup, the ability to live in a space that actually reflects how you want to live, and an exit strategy that doesn't involve Facebook Marketplace negotiations — and the case for an empty flat gets stronger still. The furnished apartment was always selling convenience. That convenience is now available separately, for a fraction of the markup.