A turnkey property is a home you can walk into, put your case down, and live in. The furniture is in place, the beds are made, the kitchen is equipped, the lights work, and the art is on the walls. For an overseas owner buying in London, that promise is worth a great deal, because the alternative is furnishing a flat from another country, one delivery at a time, through a managing agent, a courier and a timezone gap.
The question is what that promise costs, and the honest answer is that it depends entirely on which version of turnkey you are buying. A furniture pack for a rental flat starts at a few thousand pounds. A homeowner pack for a one-bedroom apartment starts at twenty five thousand pounds plus VAT. A bespoke turnkey furnishing for a prime London home is priced by quotation, and no published source gives a total for it. Any guide that states a prime total as a fact is guessing, and this guide does not guess.
That is the problem with pricing turnkey furnishing, and it is the problem this guide solves. It starts by defining what turnkey actually includes, because the word is used for three very different products. It then sets out the published prices for each one, explains what the headline price leaves out, walks through the remote process step by step for an owner who lives abroad, and finishes with the checks to make before any money is paid. Every figure is drawn from published vendor prices, and every figure is attributed to its source, because the sources are vendors selling the packs they price, and that is itself the most important fact in this guide.
In brief: Investor furniture packs for rental flats start from £3,395 plus VAT, with higher tiers from £3,995 and £5,995 plus VAT. A homeowner furniture pack for a fully furnished one-bedroom apartment starts from £25,000 plus VAT. A bespoke interior design service for a prime London home is price on request, and no published source gives a total for a prime London bespoke turnkey furnishing. VAT at 20 per cent is the single largest addition to any headline price, and delivery, storage, window dressings, art and snagging are usually extra. Installation typically takes 24 to 48 hours for a pack, and about a week for a larger homeowner installation.
What “Turnkey” Actually Means
Turnkey is a sales word, and it is used for three different products. Before any price can mean anything, the three need names and definitions.
Tier 1: The investor furniture pack. A fixed package of furniture and accessories for a flat that will be let. The pack is chosen from a short menu, usually three tiers with names such as Investor, Gold and Diamond, and it is installed in a day or two. The contents are standard: bed, mattress, wardrobe, sofa, coffee table, dining table and chairs, TV unit, lamps, mirrors and a basic kitchen equipment set. The buyer does not choose individual pieces. The pack is designed to make a flat rentable quickly, and the vendor’s own claim is that 85 per cent of furnished properties are rented within a week, which is the vendor’s claim and should be read as one, not as an independent fact. This tier is a rental product. It is not a home furnishing service, and it should not be judged as one.
Tier 2: The homeowner furniture pack. A fuller package for an owner who will live in the property, or who wants it furnished to a standard a tenant in a prime flat would expect. The pack is still chosen from a menu, but the menu is wider, typically three styles such as Classic, Contemporary and Modern, and the contents are more complete. The published example is a fully furnished one-bedroom apartment: sofa, armchairs, dining set, king bed, linen, bathroom accessories, dining accessories, chef’s equipment, electrical items, lounge and bedroom accessories, a 43-inch television, decor and lighting. The price is quoted from £25,000 plus VAT for a one-bedroom apartment. Larger flats cost more, and the vendor does not publish a price for them. This tier is a furnished home, bought as a package rather than designed piece by piece.
Tier 3: The bespoke designer route. A designer is engaged to furnish the property from a blank brief. Nothing is chosen from a menu. The designer sources furniture, commissions bespoke pieces, specifies window dressings, art and accessories, and manages the installation. The price is on request, because the specification is the price, and no two prime homes have the same specification. This tier is the only one that can properly be called turnkey furnishing for a prime London home, because the other two are packages, and a prime home is not a package. The cost of the designer route is covered in detail below, and the honest statement is that it is priced by quotation above the homeowner pack band.
The tiers matter because a buyer who asks for turnkey furnishing without naming the tier will be quoted a number that belongs to a different tier. A £3,395 pack and a £25,000 pack and a bespoke designer project are not three prices for the same thing. They are three different products with the same label. Name the tier first, and the numbers start to make sense.
Turnkey Furnishing Costs by Tier
The table below brings the published vendor prices together. All figures are the vendor’s published prices, not an independent market survey, because no independent survey of turnkey furnishing prices exists in the checked results. VAT at 20 per cent is added where the vendor states the price as plus VAT, and the table shows both the headline and the VAT-inclusive figure so the real cost is visible.
| Tier | Published price (vendor) | What it usually includes |
|---|---|---|
| Investor pack (rental) | From £3,395 plus VAT (£4,074 including VAT) | Bed, mattress, wardrobe, sofa, coffee table, dining set, TV unit, lamps, mirrors, basic kitchen equipment |
| Gold pack (rental) | From £3,995 plus VAT (£4,794 including VAT) | Everything in the Investor pack at a higher specification |
| Diamond pack (rental) | From £5,995 plus VAT (£7,194 including VAT) | Everything in the Gold pack at a higher specification, fuller accessories |
| Homeowner pack (1-bed) | From £25,000 plus VAT (£30,000 including VAT) | Sofa, armchairs, dining set, king bed, linen, bathroom and dining accessories, chef’s equipment, electrics, 43-inch TV, decor and lighting, in Classic, Contemporary or Modern style |
| Bespoke designer route | Price on request | Full design service, bespoke furniture and joinery, window dressings, art, accessories, installation and styling; no published total exists |
Two things stand out. First, the gap between the tiers is enormous, and it is the whole story. The cheapest investor pack costs about a seventh of the homeowner pack, and the homeowner pack is itself the floor for the bespoke route, not the ceiling. A buyer who budgets £5,000 for a turnkey prime flat has budgeted for a rental pack, not a furnished home, and the gap will be discovered at the worst possible moment, which is after exchange, when the completion date is fixed and the flat is empty.
Second, VAT is doing real work in every row. The headline prices are all quoted plus VAT, which means the price a buyer actually pays is 20 per cent higher than the number on the vendor’s page. On the homeowner pack, VAT alone adds £5,000. On a larger bespoke project, VAT is the single largest line after the furniture itself. Any budget that starts from the headline price and forgets VAT is under-budgeted by a fifth before a single piece of furniture has been chosen.
Where the Money Actually Goes
A turnkey furnishing budget breaks down into six parts, and the proportions change sharply as the tier rises. At pack level, the furniture dominates because there is little else. At bespoke level, the design fee, the bespoke pieces and the window dressings become major lines of their own, and the project management that holds the whole job together is a real cost rather than a rounding error.
The furniture itself. This is the largest single cost at every tier. In a pack, the furniture is bought in volume by the vendor, which is why the price is low and the choice is narrow. In a bespoke project, the furniture is sourced piece by piece, and the price reflects the maker, the materials and the lead time. A sofa from a recognised maker costs several times a sofa from a volume supplier, and a bespoke sofa made to fit a specific room costs more again. The furniture is also the line where the specification is most visible, because the sofa, the bed and the dining table are the objects the home is lived through every day. A buyer who compares two turnkey quotes should always ask for the furniture list behind the total, because two quotes for the same flat can differ by tens of thousands of pounds and both can be honest, if one specifies volume furniture and the other specifies designer furniture.
FF&E and the small items. FF&E stands for furniture, fixtures and equipment, and it is the part of a turnkey project that is easiest to forget and hardest to live without. It covers everything that is not a piece of furniture: bed linen, towels, crockery, cutlery, glassware, kitchen equipment, lamps, mirrors, cushions, throws, and the small accessories that make a flat look finished rather than staged. The homeowner pack includes these, which is one reason it costs five times the top rental pack. The rental packs include a basic version of them. In a bespoke project, FF&E is specified line by line, and it is a significant budget in its own right, because a prime home needs a full set of everything, and the quality expected at prime level is not the quality of a hotel supply catalogue. A buyer who budgets for furniture and forgets FF&E will move into a flat with a sofa and no plates.
Window dressings. Curtains and blinds are the line that most often surprises buyers, because they are not furniture and they are not decoration, and they are priced as a separate trade. A prime London flat has tall windows, often with shutters or bay windows, and dressing them properly means made-to-measure curtains, a track or pole, lining, and installation by a specialist. The cost depends on the number of windows, the height of the rooms, and the fabric chosen, and a full set for a prime flat runs into thousands of pounds. Most pack prices do not include window dressings at all, and a buyer who assumes they do will discover the omission on the day the furniture arrives and the windows are bare.
Art and accessories. Art is the line that separates a furnished flat from a home, and it is the line that pack prices almost never include. A homeowner pack includes decor and lighting, which covers lamps, mirrors and a limited set of decorative objects, but it does not include art, and it does not include the personal objects that make a home look lived in rather than displayed. In a bespoke project, art is either sourced by the designer, chosen by the owner, or commissioned, and each of those routes has a different cost and a different lead time. Art is also the line with the widest possible range, because a print costs tens of pounds and an original costs whatever the artist asks, so no guide can give a useful band for it. The honest statement is that art is extra, it is budgeted separately, and it should be decided early, because a framed print needs a wall that has been measured and a hook that has been fixed, and both of those are easier before the furniture is in place.
Delivery, installation and storage. A pack is delivered and installed by the vendor’s own fleet, typically in 24 to 48 hours for a rental pack and about a week for a larger homeowner installation. That sounds simple, and for a ground-floor flat with a lift it is. For a prime London flat in a mansion block with no lift, a narrow staircase, a porter who needs notice, and a freeholder who requires a licence for alterations, it is not. Delivery to a prime flat can involve a booked slot, a parking suspension, a team of installers, and packaging removal, and each of those is a cost. Storage is the line that appears when completion slips, which it often does. If the furniture is ready and the flat is not, the furniture has to be stored, and storage is charged by the week. A buyer whose completion date moves by a month can pay a month of storage on top of the pack price, and that cost is never in the headline figure.
The design fee and project management. In a pack, there is no design fee, because there is no design. In the bespoke route, the design fee is the cost of the designer, and it is charged in one of three ways, which are set out in full in the guide to luxury interior designer cost in London: hourly, per room, or as a percentage of the project. The fee covers the concept, the sourcing, the specification, the ordering, and the supervision of the installation, and it is the reason a bespoke project costs more than the sum of its furniture. Project management is the quiet part of that fee, and it is the part that matters most to an overseas owner, because it is the designer who is in the flat when the delivery arrives, who checks the furniture against the specification, and who signs off the snagging list. A buyer who tries to save the design fee by managing the project from abroad will discover that the fee was paying for a person in the room, and that there is no substitute for one.
Furniture Packs vs the Designer Route
The choice between a pack and a designer is the central decision in turnkey furnishing, and it is worth making deliberately rather than by default. The two routes are not a cheap version and an expensive version of the same thing. They are different products, with different strengths, and the right choice depends on what the property is for.
Choose a pack when the property is a rental. A pack is fast, fixed in price, and installed in days. The furniture is chosen for durability and for broad appeal, which is exactly what a rental flat needs. The landlord does not have to make a hundred small decisions, and the tenant does not have to live with the landlord’s taste. The pack’s weakness is also its strength: it is standard. Every flat furnished with the same pack looks the same, and a tenant who has seen the pack in three other flats will recognise it in a fourth. For a rental, that does not matter. For a home, it does.
Choose a pack when speed matters more than individuality. A pack can be installed in 24 to 48 hours, and a homeowner pack in about a week. A bespoke project takes weeks or months, because furniture is made to order, fabrics are sourced, and the installation is phased. If completion is in a fortnight and the flat needs to be let or lived in immediately, the pack is the only route that fits the timetable. The trade-off is that the flat will look furnished rather than designed, and that is a trade-off worth making when the alternative is an empty flat.
Choose the designer route when the property is a home. A prime London home is not a product, and furnishing it from a menu will show. The designer route is slower and more expensive, and it is the only route that produces a home rather than a furnished flat. The designer works from the owner’s brief, from the architecture of the rooms, and from the way the household actually lives, and the result is specific to that home in a way a pack cannot be. The cost is higher, and the price is on request, because the specification is the price. For an owner who will live in the property, or who wants it to feel like a home rather than a show flat, the designer route is the right choice, and the pack is a false economy.
Choose the designer route when the property needs more than furniture. A prime flat often needs more than furniture. It may need a luxury kitchen renovation cost UK project before it can be furnished at all, or a luxury bathroom renovation cost UK project to bring the wet rooms up to the standard of the rest of the home. A pack vendor does not do renovation work, and a pack does not cover it. A designer does, and a designer will sequence the work so that the renovation finishes before the furniture arrives, rather than the furniture arriving into a building site. The furnishing decision and the renovation decision are the same decision, and they should be made together.
The hybrid route. There is a middle path, and it is worth naming. Some owners buy a homeowner pack for the bedrooms and the second living spaces, where standard furniture is acceptable, and engage a designer for the principal living room, the dining room and the master bedroom, where the specification matters most. This route is cheaper than a full bespoke project and more individual than a full pack, and it is a sensible compromise for an owner who wants a home rather than a show flat but does not want to pay for a bespoke specification in every room. The risk is that the two halves of the flat look like two different flats, which is a real risk, and it is worth asking the designer whether they will take responsibility for the whole scheme, including the pack rooms, before committing to the hybrid.
The Remote Process Step by Step
For an overseas owner, the process matters as much as the price, because the owner is not in the room. The whole job is managed remotely, and the quality of the remote process is what separates a good vendor from a bad one. The steps below are drawn from the published vendor process, reframed independently, with the checks an overseas owner should add at each stage.
Step 1: Consultation. The vendor or designer takes a brief: the property, the number of bedrooms, the purpose (let or live in), the style, and the budget. For an overseas owner, this happens by video call, and the brief should be written down and agreed, not left as a conversation. The brief is the document the whole project is judged against, and a brief that exists only in a phone call will be disputed later. Ask for the brief in writing, and check it before the next step begins.
Step 2: Design proposal and mood boards. The vendor or designer produces a proposal: a scheme for each room, with images, fabrics, and a furniture list. For a pack, this is a shortlist of the three pack tiers and the three styles. For a bespoke project, this is a full design presentation. The overseas owner reviews it by video call and by email, and approves it in writing. This is the moment to be difficult, because changing a scheme on paper costs nothing, and changing it after the furniture has been ordered costs a great deal. Ask for the furniture list with prices, not just the images, because the images show the look and the list shows the cost, and both need to be approved.
Step 3: On-site visit and measurements. The vendor or designer visits the property and measures it. This is the step that cannot be done remotely, and it is the step that most often goes wrong when it is skipped. A sofa that fits the room on paper may not fit through the door, and a bed that fits the bedroom may not fit up the stairs. The vendor’s team should confirm the access route, the lift dimensions, the door widths, and the parking arrangements, and they should confirm them in writing. For an overseas owner, this is also the moment to confirm who holds the keys, because the vendor needs access to the property, and the owner needs to know who has the keys, how many sets exist, and when they will be returned.
Step 4: Order and manufacture. The furniture is ordered. For a pack, this is a matter of days, because the furniture is held in stock. For a bespoke project, this is a matter of weeks or months, because furniture is made to order, fabrics are sourced, and lead times apply. The overseas owner should receive a written order confirmation with the delivery date, the storage arrangements if the date slips, and the cancellation terms. This is also the moment to confirm the payment schedule, which is covered below.
Step 5: Delivery and installation. The furniture is delivered and installed by the vendor’s team. For a pack, this takes 24 to 48 hours. For a larger homeowner installation, about a week. For a bespoke project, longer, and phased by room. The installation team should remove all packaging, position the furniture, hang the mirrors and the art, and leave the property clean. For an overseas owner, the installation should be documented with photographs and video, taken room by room, so the owner can see the finished property without being there. A vendor who will not provide photographs of the finished installation is a vendor to avoid.
Step 6: Final styling and handover. The property is styled: cushions arranged, throws placed, lamps switched on, and the final details attended to. The vendor or designer then hands the property over, which for an overseas owner means a video walkthrough, a written snagging list, and a confirmation that the property is ready. The snagging list is the list of defects found at handover: a scratched table, a missing cushion, a lamp that does not work. It should be agreed in writing, with a date for each item to be fixed, and the final payment should not be made until the snagging list is agreed. This is the single most important protection an overseas owner has, and it is worth insisting on.
Three Worked Examples
The tiers above are more useful when they are attached to real properties. The three examples below are illustrative, built entirely from the published vendor prices in this guide, and they show how the same money is spent differently at each tier. The bespoke example is deliberately left as a range with a quote-led top, because no published source gives a prime total and this guide does not invent one.
Example 1: A one-bedroom flat to let, Investor pack, around £4,100 including VAT. The flat is bought as an investment and needs to be let quickly. The Investor pack at £3,395 plus VAT, which is £4,074 including VAT, covers the bed, the wardrobe, the sofa, the dining set, the TV unit and the basic kitchen equipment. Installation takes 24 to 48 hours, and the flat is ready to photograph and to let within the week. Window dressings are not included, and the landlord should budget separately for curtains or blinds, which for a one-bedroom flat is a modest addition. The total is the pack price plus VAT plus window dressings, and it is the cheapest way to make a flat rentable.
Example 2: A one-bedroom flat for the owner, homeowner pack, around £30,000 including VAT plus extras. The flat is bought as a pied-a-terre, and the owner will stay in it for a few weeks each year. The homeowner pack at £25,000 plus VAT, which is £30,000 including VAT, covers the full furniture set, the FF&E, the television, the decor and the lighting, in the style the owner chooses. Installation takes about a week. Window dressings are extra, art is extra, and the owner should budget for both. The total is the pack price plus VAT plus window dressings plus art, and it is the price of a furnished home bought as a package rather than designed piece by piece.
Example 3: A two-bedroom prime flat, bespoke designer route, quote-led above the homeowner pack. The flat is in a prime location, and the owner wants it furnished to the standard of the building. The designer is engaged, the specification is bespoke, and the price is on request. The furniture alone will cost more than the homeowner pack, because it is sourced piece by piece rather than bought in volume. The design fee is charged on one of the three models set out in the designer cost guide. Window dressings, art and FF&E are specified line by line. The total is not published anywhere, and this guide does not invent one. The honest statement is that the total starts above the £30,000 including VAT of the homeowner pack and is priced by quotation, and that any guide that states a prime bespoke total as a fact is guessing.
What the Headline Price Leaves Out
The headline price is never the total cost, and the gap between the two is where turnkey budgets go wrong. The items below are the ones most commonly left out of a headline price, and each of them should be confirmed in writing before any money is paid.
VAT. Already covered, and worth repeating, because it is the largest single addition. Every pack price in this guide is quoted plus VAT, and the price a buyer actually pays is 20 per cent higher. On the homeowner pack, VAT adds £5,000. A budget that forgets VAT is under-budgeted by a fifth.
Delivery and installation. Pack prices usually include delivery and installation, but the inclusion should be confirmed, because it is sometimes limited to a ground-floor flat with a lift, and a prime flat in a mansion block with no lift, a narrow staircase and a porter who needs notice is a different job. Confirm in writing that delivery and installation are included, and confirm what happens if the access is more difficult than the vendor expected.
Window dressings. Almost never included in a pack price. Budget separately, and budget early, because curtains are made to measure and take weeks.
Art. Almost never included in a pack price. Budget separately, and decide early, because art needs walls that have been measured and hooks that have been fixed.
Storage. Not included in any pack price, and charged by the week when completion slips. If the furniture is ready and the flat is not, the furniture has to be stored somewhere, and the storage bill is the buyer’s. Confirm the storage rate in writing before ordering, and confirm who pays it if the delay is the vendor’s fault rather than the buyer’s.
Snagging and aftercare. A good vendor will return to fix defects found at handover. A bad vendor will not. Confirm in writing that snagging is included, how long the aftercare period lasts, and what happens if a piece of furniture is damaged in transit or fails within the first year. A pack price that does not include aftercare is not cheaper. It is incomplete.
The running costs after handover. Furnishing is a one-off cost, but the property it furnishes has an annual cost, and the two should be budgeted together. The annual running costs of a luxury London home guide sets out the service charges, the insurance, the utilities and the upkeep that follow every purchase, and a buyer who budgets for the furnishing and forgets the running costs will discover the second bill within the first year.
Checks Before Paying
A turnkey furnishing is a large purchase made from another country, and the checks below are the minimum an overseas owner should make before any money is paid. They are not legal advice, and they do not replace a solicitor’s review of the contract, but they are the practical checks that catch the problems that actually occur.
Get the furniture list in writing, with prices. A quote that says “fully furnished one-bedroom apartment, £25,000 plus VAT” is not a quote. It is a headline. The quote should list every item, with its price, so the owner can see what is included and what is not, and so the handover can be checked against the list. If the vendor will not provide an itemised list, do not proceed.
Confirm what is not included, in writing. The list of exclusions is as important as the list of inclusions. VAT, delivery, window dressings, art, storage and snagging should each be confirmed as included or excluded, with a price where they are extra. A vendor who will not confirm the exclusions in writing is a vendor whose price will grow after the order is placed.
Confirm the payment schedule. Turnkey vendors typically take a deposit on order and the balance on delivery or on handover. The schedule should be in writing, and the final payment should be tied to handover and to the agreement of the snagging list, not to the delivery date. Never pay the full price before the furniture has been delivered and checked, because once the money has been paid, the leverage to fix a defect is gone.
Confirm who holds the keys, and when they are returned. The vendor needs access to the property, and the owner needs to know who has the keys, how many sets exist, and when they will be returned. This should be agreed in writing, and the keys should be returned at handover, not kept for convenience.
Confirm the snagging process. The handover should include a video walkthrough, a written snagging list, and a date for each item to be fixed. The final payment should not be made until the snagging list is agreed. This is the single most important protection an overseas owner has.
Check the vendor. The turnkey market is dominated by a small number of vendors, and the checked SERP is effectively owned by one of them, which is itself a reason to be careful. Ask for references, ask for photographs of completed installations, and ask whether the vendor has furnished properties in the same building or the same street. A vendor who has done the job before will have photographs to prove it, and a vendor who has not will have excuses instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to furnish a London property turnkey? It depends on the tier. A rental furniture pack starts from £3,395 plus VAT. A homeowner pack for a one-bedroom apartment starts from £25,000 plus VAT. A bespoke designer furnishing for a prime London home is price on request, and no published source gives a total for it. The tiers are different products, and the price belongs to the tier, not to the word turnkey.
What is included in a turnkey furnishing? It depends on the tier. A rental pack includes the furniture and the basic accessories needed to let a flat. A homeowner pack includes the furniture, the FF&E, the television, the decor and the lighting. A bespoke project includes everything the designer specifies, which can include window dressings, art and bespoke furniture. VAT, window dressings, art and storage are usually extra, and each should be confirmed in writing.
How long does turnkey furnishing take? A rental pack is installed in 24 to 48 hours. A homeowner pack takes about a week. A bespoke project takes weeks or months, because furniture is made to order and fabrics are sourced. The timetable should be confirmed in writing before ordering, and the owner should allow for slippage, because a completion date that moves by a month can add a month of storage to the bill.
Can I furnish a London property turnkey from abroad? Yes, and most overseas owners do. The whole process is managed remotely: the consultation by video call, the design proposal by email, the measurements and the installation by the vendor’s team on site, and the handover by video walkthrough with a written snagging list. The quality of the remote process is what separates a good vendor from a bad one, and the checks in this guide are the ones that matter most when the owner is not in the room.
Is a furniture pack or a designer better for a prime London home? A designer, if the property is a home, and a pack, if the property is a rental. A pack is fast, fixed in price, and standard, which is exactly what a rental needs and exactly what a home does not. A designer is slower and more expensive, and it is the only route that produces a home rather than a furnished flat. The hybrid route, a pack for the secondary rooms and a designer for the principal rooms, is a sensible compromise, provided the designer takes responsibility for the whole scheme.
Does VAT apply to turnkey furnishing? Yes. The pack prices published by vendors are quoted plus VAT, and the price a buyer actually pays is 20 per cent higher. On the homeowner pack, VAT adds £5,000. Any budget that starts from the headline price and forgets VAT is under-budgeted by a fifth before a single piece of furniture has been chosen.
What should I check before paying for turnkey furnishing? Get the furniture list in writing with prices, confirm the exclusions in writing, confirm the payment schedule, confirm who holds the keys, confirm the snagging process, and check the vendor’s references and photographs of completed installations. Never pay the full price before the furniture has been delivered and checked.