Should new-build landlords stop furnishing? What two months' notice changes

Short answer: for most new-build flats, let it unfurnished by default and keep furniture as an option for the right applicant. Since 1 May 2026 a tenant can leave on two months' notice from day one, so a tenant's own furniture is one of the few signs of commitment left. In prime, corporate-let pockets, furnished still wins on speed.

This is a prediction, dated September 2026, with our own tenancy numbers as the baseline. We will publish the follow-up numbers in September 2027, whichever way they fall.

What changed on 1 May 2026 that makes new-build landlords nervous?

The Renters' Rights Act 2025 did not just abolish section 21. It removed every device a landlord used to write commitment into a contract.

Before 1 May 2026	Now	Where it says so
A 12-month fixed term	Every assured tenancy is periodic from day one; a fixed term is of no effect	Housing Act 1988 s.4A, inserted by the Renters' Rights Act 2025 s.1
Six months' rent up front	Rent falls due period by period; a term making rent due in advance is of no effect	Housing Act 1988 s.4B, inserted by the Renters' Rights Act 2025
A section 21 notice	Gone. Possession needs a section 8 ground and evidence	Renters' Rights Act 2025 s.2
The tenant tied in for the term	The tenant leaves on two months' notice, served at any time	Protection from Eviction Act 1977 s.5(1ZA), inserted by the Renters' Rights Act 2025 s.20
A student let timed to the academic year	Ground 4A applies only where the flat is an HMO, or in one	Housing Act 1988 Schedule 2, Ground 4A
"No pets"	A pet request cannot be unreasonably refused; no pet deposit, no pet insurance	Housing Act 1988 s.16A; Tenant Fees Act 2019 unchanged

What is left is what the tenant does: what they bring, what they buy, and what it would cost them to leave.

Can a tenant really treat a furnished new-build flat as a two-month let?

Yes. The notice can be served on day one and needs no reason. The tenant pays two months' rent and goes. Nothing in the Act sets a minimum stay. The House of Lords voted to widen the student ground to one- and two-bedroom flats and to allow a pet deposit of three weeks' rent. Neither survived into the Act.

A furnished flat with good furniture is exactly what a two-month tenant wants. They arrive with a suitcase and leave with one. Nothing they own has to move.

So far, short stays have been rare. Across 137 ended tenancies on our own book, measured on 9 September 2026, the median tenancy ran 12 months. 1.5% ended inside three months and 4.4% inside six. Those tenancies began under fixed terms, so they are the pre-Act baseline, not evidence about the Act. If tenant behaviour changes, this is the number that moves.

Does unfurnished actually keep a tenant longer?

Nobody knows yet, including us. The Act is under five months old and no one has a year of data.

The logic is sound. A tenant who buys a bed, a sofa and a table has spent money and a weekend. Leaving means a van, a day off and a deposit on the next place. That cost sits on the tenant's side and the Act cannot remove it. It filters; it does not guarantee. Furniture can be hired, and a determined short-stayer will still find you. But an applicant who asks whether the flat comes with a bed is telling you one thing about their plans, and an applicant who asks which entrance takes a sofa is telling you another.

The trade is the first void. Unfurnished excludes the relocating professional who needs a furnished flat next Tuesday, and that person is a large share of central London new-build demand. Our own experience is that a furnished new-build flat lets faster. We have not yet split our days-on-market figures by furnishing. When we have, the number will go here.

What does furnishing a new-build actually cost you?

• The furniture is not deductible. The first purchase is capital. A deduction is allowed only when you replace an item already provided, under section 311A of the Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005; HMRC's Property Income Manual PIM3210 says the same. We are not tax advisers. Our tax partner YWC London LLP is, and we take no referral fee.
• The deposit does not stretch. Five weeks' rent is the cap where the annual rent is under £50,000 (Tenant Fees Act 2019, Schedule 1, paragraph 2). At our average rent of about £2,492 a month, as at June 2026, that is about £2,875 to cover the flat, the furniture and any unpaid rent.
• Pets. A tenant may ask to keep a pet and you cannot unreasonably refuse (Housing Act 1988 s.16A). You cannot take a pet deposit or require pet insurance. Your sofa, their dog. Our pet requests explainer covers the 28-day clock.
• Inventory and wear. A furnished inventory is long, and every change of tenant is a check-out against your items. Unfurnished, what the tenant owns is theirs to move and theirs to look after.

What does every change of tenant cost, furnished or not?

Whatever you decide about furniture, each changeover carries the same bill. A short-stay tenant makes you pay it again within months.

• A check-out inventory, a professional clean and a check-in inventory.
• Council tax for the empty days. With no resident, the owner is the liable person (Local Government Finance Act 1992 s.6(2)(f)). Whether your borough gives any discount on an empty flat is the borough's decision.
• Standing charges on every supply while the flat is empty, including the communal heat network that most central London developments run, which charges whether or not anyone is home.
• The communal billing changeover. In our experience it is the slowest part of a new-build move-out. The billing agent closes the leaver's account and opens the next one on its own backlog, not ours. Until the final bill is settled the deposit cannot be finalised, and a final bill the tenant leaves unpaid falls back on the landlord. Our new-build utility management post explains the heat-network set-up; a separate post on moving in and out will follow.
• Marketing again, referencing again, and, with most agents, a letting fee again.

Who pays when a tenant leaves after three months: you, or your agent's fee model?

Most agents charge a fee each time they find a tenant. A flat that turns over three times in two years pays that fee three times, and the agent has no reason to mind. That is the problem underneath the furniture question: the people advising you on churn are often paid by churn.

Our fee is one all-in fee of 10% of the monthly rent, including VAT, charged only in the months a tenant is actually paying rent. £0 during a void. £0 to re-let. No letting fee, no renewal fee, no rent-review fee. We won't charge you a penny to replace a tenant who leaves early, so a two-month tenant costs us the same void it costs you. What happens to our fee when a tenant leaves early shows the arithmetic.

It also settles the furniture question for our own landlords. If you want to keep a flat furnished because that is what your building's tenants pay for, keep it furnished. We re-let it as many times as it takes, under the same terms, and no re-let charge ever appears on your statement. The turnover risk that worries landlords elsewhere is a risk our fee model was built to carry.

What we suggest for a new-build flat now

1. Advertise it unfurnished, at the right day-one price. Say what unfurnished means: integrated appliances, blinds, built-in wardrobes where the development has them. New-build first-let pricing explains why the day-one rent matters more than it used to.
2. Keep furniture as an offer-stage option, not a second advertised rent. If the strongest applicant needs a furnished flat, decide then.
3. Corporate and relocation pockets: furnish. That market pays for it, moves fast and moves on. Accept the churn and budget for it.
4. Students in a self-contained new-build flat: decide deliberately. Ground 4A will not let you time the tenancy to the academic year. Furnish for them and budget a summer void, or decide the student market is not for this flat. Our student lettings page covers the guarantor schemes.
5. Read the applicant's own signals. Their own furniture, their job, their references, a guarantor. Those are the commitment devices the Act left you.

What we will measure

Our book, September 2027: median tenancy length, the share of tenancies ended inside six months, split furnished against unfurnished. If unfurnished flats hold tenants longer, we will say so with the numbers. If they do not, we will say that too.

Sources

• Protection from Eviction Act 1977, s.5(1ZA) (tenant's notice to quit under an assured tenancy: two months, or a shorter period the landlord agrees in writing; inserted by the Renters' Rights Act 2025 s.20, in force 1 May 2026 by S.I. 2026/421): https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1977/43/section/5 · https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/26/section/20
• Renters' Rights Act 2025, s.2 (abolition of assured shorthold tenancies; Chapter 2 of Part 1 of the Housing Act 1988, which contained section 21, omitted): https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/26/section/2
• Housing Act 1988, s.4A (assured tenancies periodic, rent periods of a month or less) and s.4B (rent not to be due in advance): https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/50/section/4A · https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/50/section/4B
• Housing Act 1988, s.16A (pets: consent not to be unreasonably refused; written answer within 28 days): https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/50/section/16A
• Housing Act 1988, Schedule 2, Ground 4A (student lets where the dwelling is an HMO or in one; possession between 1 June and 30 September): https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/50/schedule/2
• Tenant Fees Act 2019, Schedule 1, paragraph 2 (tenancy deposit capped at five weeks' rent where the annual rent is under £50,000): https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/4/schedule/1
• Local Government Finance Act 1992, s.6 (persons liable to pay council tax; the owner where there is no resident): https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1992/14/section/6
• Income Tax (Trading and Other Income) Act 2005, s.311A (replacement domestic items relief) and HMRC Property Income Manual PIM3210: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2005/5/section/311A · https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/property-income-manual/pim3210
• House of Commons Library, Renters' Rights Bill 2024-25: Consideration of Lords amendments (CBP-10325): the Lords amendments to widen Ground 4A to one- and two-bedroom student lets and to allow a pet deposit of up to three weeks' rent, neither of which is in the Act: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-10325/
• Harvey W James, tenancy-length figures from our Street CRM: 137 ended tenancies, measured 9 September 2026 (median 12.0 months; 1.5% ended within three months; 4.4% within six). Our own figures are described, not audited.

All statute text read as consolidated point-in-time data.xml from legislation.gov.uk on 18 September 2026.

Worried about turnover, or paying an agent every time a tenant is replaced? Speak to us. Book a free new-build rental appraisal and we will tell you which way we would let your flat, furnished or not, on one fee that never charges you to re-let. More on how we let new-builds: new-build specialists.

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