Furnished vs Unfurnished Rentals: Which Earns More in Squamish?

It's one of the first questions a new Squamish landlord asks: furnished or unfurnished? The pitch for furnished is simple: charge more. The reality is more nuanced, because "charge more" and "net more" aren't the same thing once you account for the furniture you have to buy, insure, repair, and replace, and the extra turnover that furnished rentals tend to see. This guide lays out the furnished vs unfurnished trade-off for Squamish owners: the rent difference, the costs, the tenant pool, and which one usually wins.

Rent figures, premiums, and furnishing costs vary widely with the unit, the season, and the market. Treat the comparisons here as directional, not as quotes, and get a current read on your specific property before deciding.

The case for furnished

Furnished rentals do have real advantages:

• Higher monthly rent. A well-furnished unit can list above its unfurnished equivalent, sometimes meaningfully, especially if it's a small, well-located, move-in-ready place.
• A specific, motivated tenant segment. People relocating to Squamish before their belongings arrive, contract and project workers, people between homes, and those who want a shorter or more flexible arrangement. These tenants will pay for not having to buy or move furniture.
• Flexibility on term length. Furnished units lend themselves to shorter fixed terms, which can suit an owner who might want the place back, or who's testing the market.
• Shows well. An empty unit can read as small or cold; a furnished one photographs and shows better, which can shorten time-on-market for the right tenant.

In Whistler, the furnished and seasonal angle is bigger and more established. In Squamish, it's a smaller part of the picture: real, but narrower.

The case for unfurnished

Unfurnished is the default for a reason:

• Bigger tenant pool. The broad long-term market (families, couples, long-term commuters, people putting down roots) overwhelmingly wants an unfurnished home they can fill with their own things. That's most of the demand in Squamish.
• Longer tenancies. Unfurnished tenants tend to stay longer, because moving their own furniture in is an investment in staying. Long tenancies mean less vacancy and fewer re-leasing costs.
• Far less work. You're not sourcing, insuring, repairing, storing, or replacing furniture and housewares. Turnovers are simpler.
• Lower risk. Less owner-owned property in the unit means less to be damaged, less to argue about at move-out, and a cleaner condition inspection.
• Lower up-front cost. No furnishing budget to recoup before the unit starts earning.

The trade-off is the lower headline rent. That's the whole debate in one line.

The Squamish market reality

Here's the part that doesn't show up in a generic article. Squamish's strongest, most reliable rental demand is long-term and unfurnished: families moving up the corridor, people working in Squamish or commuting to Vancouver or Whistler, couples and individuals settling in. That demand is deep and fairly steady through the year.

Furnished demand in Squamish is real but thinner and more seasonal. It leans on relocation timing, project work, and shorter-term needs, and it can go quiet outside peak periods. So a furnished unit in Squamish is competing for a smaller pool, which means the higher rent is partly a premium for accepting more vacancy risk and more frequent re-leasing. That's the math owners miss when they look only at the listing price.

What furnishing actually costs (and what it doesn't recoup)

If you do go furnished, the costs that eat into the premium:

• The initial furnishing. Beds, sofas, dining set, kitchenware, linens, small appliances, lamps, decor. It adds up, and tenants expect it to be decent, not dorm-grade.
• Replacement over time. Furniture in a rental wears faster than in your own home. Plan on cycling pieces out.
• Insurance. Your landlord policy needs to reflect the contents you own.
• Storage or disposal. When you switch a unit to unfurnished, the furniture has to go somewhere.
• Turnover costs. More frequent turnovers mean more cleaning, more re-leasing effort, and more vacancy days, each of which is a real cost in a market where every empty week is a chunk of the year's rent.

There's a tax wrinkle too: furniture is a capital item, not a deductible operating expense the year you buy it. You'd claim it over time via capital cost allowance. Our tax implications guide for Sea to Sky landlords covers that distinction.

Protecting a furnished unit (you can't take a furniture deposit)

A common misconception: that you can charge an extra deposit for the furniture. You can't. BC's deposit limits are fixed: a security deposit of at most half a month's rent, plus a pet damage deposit of at most another half-month if pets are allowed, and nothing else stacked on top. So a furnished unit relies on the same protections as any other:

• A detailed move-in condition inspection, with a written, itemized furniture inventory and photos of every significant item.
• Thorough tenant screening: credit, income, references. See tenant screening in Squamish.
• The security deposit, handled by the book. See BC security deposit rules.
• A clear tenancy agreement spelling out who's responsible for the furnishings.
• Periodic inspections during the tenancy, with proper notice.

If you also allow pets in a furnished unit, weigh that carefully: soft furnishings and pets are a combination that needs extra screening and a clear pet clause. Our pet-friendly vs no-pets guide for the Sea to Sky goes through it.

So which earns more in Squamish?

For most owners on a standard long-term hold, unfurnished nets more: lower rent, but longer tenancies, less vacancy, less work, less risk, and no furniture to buy and replace. The stable long-term tenant is the quiet outperformer.

Furnished can win when:

• you're deliberately targeting relocation, project-worker, or shorter-term tenants;
• you want flexibility to get the unit back on a shorter term;
• the unit is small and genuinely shows much better furnished;
• you already own good furniture that would otherwise sit in storage; or
• you're in a pocket of the market where furnished demand is strong and steady (more often Whistler than Squamish).

If you're not sure which bucket you're in, that's exactly the kind of thing worth a quick conversation about, including a realistic read on what each version of your unit would actually rent for. Pricing the unfurnished version well is its own skill: see how much rent should you charge in Squamish.

We furnished our Squamish condo thinking it would rent for more. It did, and then it sat empty between two short tenancies, and we replaced a couch. We switched to unfurnished and a family's been there ever since.

Next step

If you've got a Squamish property and you're weighing furnished versus unfurnished, or you've furnished it and it's not performing the way you hoped, we can give you a straight read on what each version would rent for and net, and handle the leasing either way. Start on our owners page, or browse current Squamish rentals to see what the market looks like right now. For the bigger picture, owning rental property in the Sea to Sky ties it all together.