You just landed a lease offer for a furnished one bedroom at Life Asoke Hype near MRT Phetchaburi for 18,000 baht a month. Down the road, an unfurnished unit in the same building is listed at 12,000. That 6,000 baht gap looks massive over a year. But is the cheaper option actually cheaper once you factor in everything? This is the question that trips up almost every renter in Bangkok, whether you are a fresh expat or a local moving out on your own for the first time.

What "Furnished" and "Unfurnished" Actually Mean in Bangkok

First, let's clear up something that confuses a lot of people. In Bangkok, "furnished" usually means a fully equipped unit. You walk in with your suitcase and start living. Bed, sofa, dining table, TV, fridge, washing machine, microwave, curtains, sometimes even plates and utensils. Most condos along the BTS Sukhumvit line, think Ideo Mobi Asoke or The Base Sukhumvit 77, come this way.

"Unfurnished" in Bangkok rarely means a completely empty concrete box like it might in Western cities. You almost always get a fitted kitchen, built in wardrobes, air conditioning units, and a water heater. So the gap is really about the movable stuff: beds, sofas, desks, appliances.

There is also a middle ground that agents sometimes call "partially furnished." This typically means aircon, a fridge, and maybe a washing machine, but no bed frame, no sofa, no dining set. A unit like this at Lumpini Park Rama 9 might run you 9,500 baht compared to 14,000 for a fully furnished neighbor.

The Real Cost of Furnishing a Bangkok Condo Yourself

Let's say you grab that unfurnished unit at 12,000 baht and decide to kit it out. Here is a realistic shopping list for a one bedroom based on actual Bangkok prices. A queen mattress and bed frame from Index Living Mall runs about 8,000 to 15,000 baht. A basic sofa is another 5,000 to 12,000. A desk and chair set from IKEA Bangna costs around 4,000. Curtains, a microwave, kitchen essentials, and a TV bring you to roughly 25,000 to 45,000 baht total if you shop smart.

If you hit up secondhand groups on Facebook, places like "Bangkok Expats Buy and Sell" or the Thonglor weekend markets on Soi Ekkamai 4, you can slash that number in half. I once furnished a studio near BTS On Nut for under 15,000 baht by grabbing a departing expat's entire apartment contents.

The math gets interesting when you divide that upfront cost by your lease length. Spending 30,000 baht on furniture for a 12 month lease adds 2,500 baht a month to your effective rent. For a 24 month stay, it drops to 1,250. And if you sell everything when you leave, you recover maybe 40 to 60 percent. Suddenly that 6,000 baht monthly gap starts shrinking fast.

When Furnished Is the Obvious Winner

If you are staying less than a year, furnished wins almost every time. The hassle factor alone makes it worth it. Imagine arriving from overseas with a job starting Monday at your office near BTS Chit Lom. You do not have a weekend to spend assembling IKEA furniture and haggling at Chatuchak.

Furnished also wins if your employer covers housing. Many companies in Bangkok set a monthly cap, say 25,000 baht, and furnished condos near BTS Thong Lo or Phrom Phong fit neatly into that budget. You do not get reimbursed for furniture purchases, so going unfurnished means money out of your own pocket.

Short term flexibility matters too. A furnished place at Aspire Sathorn Ratchaphruek near BTS Talat Phlu at 13,000 a month lets you leave after the lease without worrying about offloading a sofa at 2 AM before your flight.

When Unfurnished Actually Saves You Serious Money

Staying two years or longer? This is where unfurnished starts to dominate. Take a real example on Soi Ratchadaphisek 36 near MRT Lat Phrao. A furnished two bedroom at Chapter One Midtown goes for about 22,000. The same layout unfurnished lists at 15,000. That is 7,000 baht a month, or 168,000 over two years.

Even if you spend 40,000 furnishing it and sell everything for 20,000 when you leave, your net furniture cost is 20,000 baht. You still save 148,000 over the lease. That is a round trip flight home and then some.

There is also a comfort angle that people overlook. When you choose your own furniture, you get exactly what you want. No more sleeping on a rock hard mattress that some landlord bought at the cheapest wholesale rate in 2016. No more sitting on a pleather sofa that sticks to your legs in April.

Hidden Costs Most Renters Forget

Furnished condos come with a catch that nobody talks about until move out day: damage liability. That security deposit, usually two months rent, is at risk every time the cat scratches the landlord's sofa or you accidentally crack the glass coffee table. More furniture means more things you can be charged for.

In unfurnished units, your deposit is typically smaller in absolute terms because the rent is lower. And the things that can go wrong are limited to walls, floors, and built in fixtures. One tenant I know at The Room Sukhumvit 69 lost 8,000 baht from her deposit for a stain on the owner's imported dining chairs. Her own chairs? She would have just lived with the stain.

On the flip side, unfurnished renters need to budget for moving costs. Hiring a truck and two guys from a service like Deliveree or Lalamove to haul furniture across Bangkok runs 1,500 to 3,500 baht depending on distance and volume.

So which actually saves more? For stays under 12 months, furnished is almost always the better deal when you account for time, effort, and resale hassle. For leases of 18 months or longer, unfurnished can save you six figures in baht if you shop wisely and sell on exit. The sweet spot depends on your timeline, your tolerance for IKEA assembly instructions in the Bangkok heat, and whether you care about picking your own mattress firmness.

If you want to compare furnished and unfurnished options side by side with real pricing and actual photos, Superagent at superagent.co lets you filter by furnishing level across thousands of Bangkok condos. It takes about two minutes to see which option genuinely fits your budget and your plans.