Comparisons & calculators
What furnishing an apartment actually costs
Three tools for putting a real number on it: a rent-vs-buy calculator, furnishing costs by apartment size, and a budget comparison for companies relocating employees. Every figure below shows how it was calculated, see the methodology note at the bottom.
Rent vs buy furniture calculator
Pick an apartment size and how long you'll stay. We compare the total cost of renting against buying and reselling when you leave.
Apartment size
If you bought instead
Renting with UniRents
1.296 €
108 €/month × 12 months
- No upfront cost beyond month one
- Free pickup when you leave
- Nothing to resell or dispose of
Buying new
1.456 €
2.080 € upfront − est. 624 € resale after 12 months
- Full amount due upfront
- You handle delivery and assembly
- You list, sell, and hand off the resale yourself
Renting saves 160 € over 12 months
That's before counting the time cost of sourcing, assembling, and reselling furniture yourself.
What a 1-bedroom (35–55 m²) typically needs
- Bed frame
- Mattress
- Wardrobe
- Desk & chair
- Sofa
- Dining table + 4 chairs
- TV console
- Shelving unit
Cost of furnishing a Berlin apartment, by size
Rounded planning estimates for a typical furniture set at each apartment size — rental rate, cost to buy new, cost to buy secondhand, and the raw payback period against buying new before resale is factored in.
| Apartment size | Furniture set | Rent | Buy new | Buy secondhand | Raw payback vs new |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio (20–30 m²) | Bed, wardrobe, desk, small dining set, shelving | 62 €/mo | 1.120 € | 540 € | ~18 months |
| 1-bedroom (35–55 m²) | Adds a sofa, TV console, and 4-seat dining set | 108 €/mo | 2.080 € | 970 € | ~19 months |
| 2-bedroom (60–85 m²) | A full second bedroom on top of the 1-bedroom set | 172 €/mo | 3.360 € | 1.590 € | ~20 months |
| 3-bedroom (90 m²+) | A full third bedroom, plus extra living-room seating | 238 €/mo | 4.540 € | 2.180 € | ~19 months |
“Raw payback” = buy-new cost ÷ monthly rent, ignoring resale value — the point at which cumulative rent would have equaled the purchase price.
Corporate relocation furniture budget comparison
For HR and mobility teams budgeting a single employee's 1-bedroom assignment apartment. Four ways to furnish it, and what each one costs over a 6- and 12-month posting.
| Option | Upfront | 6-month total | 12-month total | Admin overhead | End-of-assignment effort | Flexibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buy new, discard at end | 2.080 € | 2.080 € | 2.080 € | High | High | Low |
| Buy new, resell at end | 2.080 € | 1.248 € | 1.456 € | High | High | Low |
| Rent via UniRents | 108 € (month one) | 648 € | 1.296 € | Low | Low | High |
| Fully furnished / serviced apartment | Bundled into rent | 2.400 € | 4.800 € | Low | Low | Medium |
Serviced/furnished-apartment total uses a 400 €/month furniture surcharge over an equivalent unfurnished lease — an industry-typical estimate, not a specific provider's quote.
How these numbers are calculated
- Furniture sets and rental rates are UniRents planning estimates based on typical Berlin furniture-rental and IKEA-tier retail pricing, current as of August 2026 — not live catalog prices. The two items actually bookable in this preview are the Study Desk (€10/month) and Queen Size Mattress (€3/day); the full catalog is on unirents.de.
- Resale recovery assumes a successful, arm's-length sale (Kleinanzeigen or similar) and falls the longer furniture is held: 40% / 30% / 20% / 10% of the new price at 6 / 12 / 24 / 36+ months, or 55% / 45% / 30% / 15% for furniture bought secondhand.
- None of the buy-side totals include the time cost of researching, purchasing, assembling, or reselling furniture — consistently the larger real cost people report versus the cash figure alone.
- Figures are for planning purposes. Message us on WhatsApp for an exact quote against a real move-in date and item list.
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