How to furnish an apartment in Spain, even if you are in your home country
In 30 seconds
A Spanish new build is handed over completely empty, down to the light fittings. Suppliers here publish package prices from about 1.000 € for the basics, up to 15.000 € and more for a full mid-range fit-out. A resale property usually comes furnished. On a resale property, you negotiate the furniture at the reservation stage, not buy it afterwards.
- Option 1RecommendedSupplier packageOne delivery, one installation, coordinated with the community’s rules.
- Cost
- 1.000 to 15.000+ €
- Your time
- Low
- When it is ready
- Weeks
- Option 2Piece by piece, yourselfFull control over what fills the apartment.
- Cost
- Lower per item
- Your time
- High
- When it is ready
- Months, in practice
- Option 3Staged over two yearsBuy the essentials now, add the rest on later visits.
- Cost
- Spread out
- Your time
- Medium
- When it is ready
- Usable now, finished later
Does the property come furnished: new build or resale property?
Four situations, and they need completely different work. The one people underestimate is the last, because it is worth more than any discount you will get on a sofa.
New build or resale property?
- New buildAn empty shell, with nothing budgeted for furniture in the purchase price.
- Standard specificationKitchen units and bathrooms are included, and often nothing else. No wardrobes, no light fittings, no air conditioning in the cheaper specifications. Budget for furniture as a separate cost, and ask what the specification includes, in writing, before you reserve.
- With a specification windowA period during construction when you can choose or add finishes, wardrobes, kitchen upgrades, and sometimes air conditioning. This is the cheapest moment to get things right, and it closes earlier than buyers expect.
- Resale propertiesWhat you get depends entirely on the contract, not the viewing.
- FurnishedSomebody else’s taste, sometimes worth several thousand euros. Go through it room by room and decide what stays.
- Furniture negotiableYou get nothing, unless it is written down. Furniture is a named item negotiated at the reservation, with an inventory list. This can save you several thousand euros of furnishing you would not need to buy.
The seller wants to leave the furniture. Should I say yes?Usually yes. Get it written down, with a list. Even furniture you plan to replace has value: it makes the apartment usable from the first week, it saves you a storage bill, and getting rid of a sofa here is easier at your own pace than as a condition of completion. What you should not do is agree it only verbally at a viewing. Furniture that is not in the contract and not on an inventory list often disappears before the handover.
What does a furniture package really include?
A furniture package means one supplier furnishes a whole apartment as a coordinated set, delivered and installed in one go. It exists because you cannot furnish a holiday home a thousand kilometres away with one delivery at a time. This is why it is the default choice on this coast.
- The furniture itselfLiving room, dining, bedrooms, and terrace: sofa, tables, chairs, beds, mattresses, bedside units, and wardrobes where the property has none. Chosen to fit the real floor plan.
- The accessory pack, which is the part people forgetCurtains or blinds, lamps and lighting, rugs, mirrors, cushions, artwork, bedding, towels, and a television. If you buy this piece by piece from Czechia, your furnishing budget can quietly double.
- The kitchen packCrockery, glassware, cutlery, pans, and the small appliances a kitchen needs to be usable: kettle, toaster, microwave, iron, hairdryer.
- What normally comes with the package, not as an extraA design consultation, a layout plan, delivery, coordination of the air conditioning and white-goods installation, unpacking, and the beds made up. Ask which of these are included. Anything not included becomes your job, on the day.
- What is normally a paid add-onPainting and decorating, a full clean after installation, blinds and awnings, and anything requiring a tradesman rather than a delivery.
How much does furnishing an apartment really cost?
Suppliers price each project separately, not from a catalogue. The same apartment can be furnished for four thousand euros, or forty thousand. The tiers below are what furniture-package suppliers in our research publish themselves, based on a two-bedroom apartment. Treat them as a picture of the market, not as a quotation.
| BasicFunctional furniture, minimal accessories, no design work | 1.000 to 3.000 € |
|---|---|
| Mid-rangeCoordinated furniture, accessory and kitchen packs, delivery and installation | 5.000 to 15.000 € |
| PremiumSpecified materials, made-to-measure pieces, real design work | 15.000 € and up |
Why will nobody publish a price for furnishing my apartment?Because the two things that decide it are your floor plan and your taste, and neither is on a price list. A supplier who publishes a fixed figure is quoting one specific set of furniture, for one specific size of apartment. The moment your layout is different, the number changes. Get two quotations for the same brief and the same plan, and compare what is inside each one, rather than just the totals.
What do the rental rules really require you to furnish?
A holiday home and a licensed short-term rental are furnished to different standards. In Andalusia, the standard for the second one is written into law. If short-term rental is part of why you are buying, these are requirements, not just recommendations, and they change your shopping list.The decree behind these rules, Decreto 28/2016, is still the main law, but it was rewritten by Decreto 31/2024 and again by Decreto-Ley 1/2025. The old article 6 list was completely repealed. Most furniture suppliers, and a lot of English-language advice, still quote the old version. Check any equipment list you are given against the current wording, not against a brochure.
- Air conditioning May to August, heating December to MarchThis applies to every habitable room, not only the bedrooms, and portable units now count. The repealed text did not allow portable units. The older May-to-September and October-to-April seasons are the old wording. Check this against the specification before you reserve a new build.
- Enough furniture and equipment for the number of placesThe property must be furnished well enough for guests to use it right away. Capacity is capped at fifteen places for a whole dwelling, and six when the property is rented room by room. The maximum is four people per bedroom, of whom no more than two on bunk-style beds, plus up to two more on a convertible sofa in the living room. The "six per bedroom" figure, still repeated on many listings, belongs to the repealed text.
- Bed linen and household items, plus one replacement setThe legal minimum is 2 sets per bed: one in use, and one replacement. In practice, operators keep more, because a same-day changeover cannot wait for a wash.
- A smoke detector, an extinguisher and the complaint formsA first aid kit, a smoke detector and a fire extinguisher, the official complaints and claims forms, the sign announcing them displayed visibly, and an evacuation plan on the back of the door. No furniture package includes any of it.
- Tourist information in the propertyOn paper or digital: what to see, where to eat, shops, parking, medical services, transport and a map.
- Appliance instructions and the house rulesInstructions for anything that needs them, and the rules of the property, including pets and smoking, in the languages your guests can read.
- A telephone number for questions and incidentsA contact number guests can call about any question or incident, plus cleaning between every stay, and a receipt showing the property’s registration code. This is the real difference between renting it out yourself and having somebody on the coast to help.
Whether short-term rental is allowed at all in your specific property is a separate question, with its own answer. It depends on the community of owners and the municipality, as much as on the licence. You can check this before a reservation. It is the wrong thing to find out afterwards.
Sources
Does my apartment need air conditioning to be rented out legally?Yes, for a licensed holiday rental. The current requirement is air conditioning from May to August, and heating from December to March, in every habitable room, not only the bedrooms. Portable units are now accepted. If a new build’s specification does not include this, budget for the installation as part of the purchase, not for next year. Ask the developer about it during the specification window, when it is far cheaper.
What does the coast do to your furniture?
Air humidity on this coast is high. A property closed up for months, with no ventilation, is the worst environment you can leave furniture in. Choosing materials here is a decision about durability, not taste, even though nobody sells furniture that way.
- Chipboard and cheap MDF are the first casualtyParticle board swells where damp reaches it, and does not recover. This is why budget wardrobes and bed bases fail in a closed apartment here, while the same items last for years in a Czech flat.
- Leather and untreated fabrics take it badlyIn a closed room, with high humidity and no light, leather goes sticky, and fabric develops the smell people call "the holiday apartment smell." Synthetic and outdoor-grade fabrics look less luxurious, but they survive.
- Mattresses need protecting, not replacing every four yearsA waterproof, breathable protector on every mattress costs very little. It is the difference between a mattress that lasts, and one that has to be carried down a stairwell. On a rental property, this is also a hygiene requirement in practice.
- Metal fittings corrode near the seaSalt air reaches further inland than people expect. It is worth choosing treated or marine-grade metal for hinges, handles, terrace furniture frames, and outdoor light fittings, rather than finding out the hard way in year three.
- Outdoor furniture is its own budget lineSun here destroys fabric and plastic faster than winter does anywhere else. Terrace furniture is used more than the dining table, and needs replacing more often. It belongs in the plan from the start, not as an afterthought once the budget is nearly gone.
- And the things nobody buys, then needs in JanuaryA heater or a heat pump that really heats, a warm duvet, a dehumidifier, and something to close the shutters against a wet February. Coastal winters here are mild, and the apartments are built for heat, not for damp.
How do you furnish an apartment while you are in Czechia?
This is the part that decides whether the whole thing takes three weeks or six months, and it has almost nothing to do with the furniture.
- Arrange somebody to be thereA delivery needs a person with keys, a phone, and the patience for a two-hour time window. The air conditioning installer, and the person measuring for blinds, need the same thing.
- Watch out
- This is the single reason packages exist, and why a supplier who coordinates it is worth more than a small discount.
- Check the community’s delivery rulesMany urbanisations restrict delivery hours, protect the lift, require the concierge to be told in advance, and prohibit work in August or during siesta hours.
- Where
- The community administrator.
- Watch out
- Lift dimensions decide whether a three-seat sofa gets upstairs at all. Ask before the delivery date is agreed, not on the morning.
- Do not deliver into an unfinished apartmentSnagging is the inspection of a finished new build for defects and unfinished work, listed and handed to the developer to put right. Get the handover done and that list agreed, then furnish.
- Watch out
- Buying before you have the keys means storage costs. Delivering into a new build that is not fully finished puts your furniture in the room while somebody is still fixing things.
- Decide the rental question before you shop, not afterA family holiday home, and a property that pays for itself through renting, are furnished differently: bed layout, durability, sleeping places, and an inventory that somebody signs.
- Watch out
- Changing your mind afterwards means buying a second time.
If you would rather not run this yourself, here is what we do on the interiors side. We put you in touch with a designer we work with, and we go through the real cost for a specific property with you, including what furnishing is worth for renting, and what it is not.
A package, or piece by piece
Neither is wrong. One buys time and coordination, the other buys control and a lower total, and the right answer depends mostly on how often you are here.| Supplier package | Piece by piece, yourself | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to a usable apartment | Weeks. One delivery, one installation, beds made up. | Months in practice, unless you are living here while you do it. |
| Total cost | Higher per item, and it includes design, delivery, installation and the coordination. | Lower per item, higher in trips, storage, and the things bought twice because the first one did not fit. |
| How it looks | Coordinated, and at the budget end interchangeable with every other apartment in the block. | Yours. This is the real argument for doing it yourself and it is a good one. |
| Air conditioning and white goods | Installation is coordinated with the delivery. This stops three tradesmen from needing three separate afternoons of somebody’s time. | Yours to arrange, in a country where you may not have the numbers or the language. |
| Suitability for renting out | Suppliers know what survives guests, and durability is specified rather than hoped for. | Possible, and it needs you to make the durability decisions deliberately rather than on price. |
| Who is present for deliveries | The supplier, working to the community’s delivery rules. | You, or somebody you trust with keys, repeatedly. |
| When something is missing or damaged | One party to call, and they were the ones who unpacked it. | Each retailer separately, from another country, in Spanish. |
Where the money stops working
Above a certain point, spending more on furniture stops changing what you earn from renting, and starts changing only how the apartment feels to you. That is a perfectly good reason to spend the money, but it is a different reason from the one people usually give themselves. A guest notices the beds, the sofa, the air conditioning, the shower, and how clean it is. Beyond that, the returns flatten out, and a designer will tell you the same thing, if you ask directly.Bringing furniture from Czechia is almost always a bad idea, and we would rather say this plainly than be diplomatic. Transport across Europe costs real money, things arrive damaged, warranty support is in another country, and Spanish rooms and doorways are not the same size as Czech ones. The delivery still has to get past the same lift and the same community rules. The exceptions are small, sentimental, and light items.What we do here is limited on purpose. We recommend a designer we have worked with, and we will go through the real numbers for a specific property with you at no charge. We do not run the fit-out for a fee and we do not sell you furniture. If a guide like this ends with somebody selling you a sofa, read the rest of it again.
Frequently asked questions about furnishing an apartment in Spain
- A resale property is advertised as amueblada. Is the furniture inside the price?
- Only if the contract says so. "Amueblada" in an advertisement describes what you can see, not what you are buying. Furniture is not part of the property unless it is written into the agreement, with an inventory list. This is why it is negotiated at the reservation stage. It is one of the few things on a resale property where you can gain real value without changing the price, and on a well-furnished apartment, that value can run into thousands.
- Can I buy the furniture before I get the keys?
- You can order it, but you should not have it delivered yet. Storage costs money, and a new build that is not fully finished is the worst place to put new furniture. Snagging work happens around it, and a scratch that appears during that week belongs to nobody. Order early so the delivery slot exists, then have it delivered after the handover, and after the snagging list is agreed.
- Which materials really survive an apartment that is closed for months?
- Solid wood or good-quality treated board, rather than chipboard. Synthetic or outdoor-grade fabrics, rather than untreated natural ones. Treated or marine-grade metal for anything with a hinge. And a protector on every mattress. High humidity, no ventilation, and no light are the real conditions, and they are harder on furniture than daily use is. Ask a supplier what they would put in a rental unit, not what they would put in a showroom.
- Do I have to take the whole package from one supplier?
- No, and mixing suppliers is common: use the package for the furniture that needs to arrive coordinated, and your own choices for the pieces you care about most. What you lose by splitting it is having just one point of contact if something is missing, so keep the split simple. Use one supplier for the bulk of the work and the installation, and your own list for the things that make it yours.
- How long does it take from ordering to a finished apartment?
- For a package, this takes weeks, not months, once the property is ready and the community has agreed to the delivery. What can make it longer: furniture made to order, an air conditioning installation that needs the community’s permission, and August, when a large part of the coast’s tradespeople stop working. Plan around these three things, and the rest is straightforward.
