I like watching House Hunters International, and one thing I notice is that when someone buys a house outside the US (and Canada?) that the furniture is usually included in the purchase. In some cases the furniture is nothing to write home about, but often it’s pretty nice stuff.
I can see advantages to including the furniture in the purchase, but I also see disadvantages.
Advantages:
The buyer doesn’t have to buy or move furniture into their new house
The seller can increase the price of the house based on the fact that it is furnished
The buyer has the choice to keep the furniture or buy their own and throw some, or all of it away
Disadvantages:
Once you sell your house and buy something else you are stuck with whatever furniture the previous owner had, or have to buy another houseful of furniture
If you really like your furniture you can always take it with you (sell your house empty), but that would be unusual and not what buyers expect apparently
If you buy a furnished house, and don’t like the furniture, you have to dispose of the furniture before you can move in your furniture
So is this really common outside of the US, or is it a myth? And why is this the norm?
I can’t really answer your question, but I can tell you two things I know.
The times that friends of mine bought houses in France, the houses came unfurnished and (IIRC) even without kitchen appliances.
On the domestic version of HH, the homebuyers have already bought the home before filming ever started, and in at least some cases, the other two homes they were shown weren’t even really for sale.
Speculation: A house that is presented as being for sale and is furnished could have been already bought and furnished by the purchaser, or could be not really for sale, i.e., inhabited.
Our apartment in Prague came unfurnished and without a kitchen. We had to hire an architect/kitchen designer and have all the cabinets and countertops built. The design contract with them included appliances.
On islands, where everything ‘western’, may be imported, requiring fees, forms, and ‘arrangements’, it’s not uncommon, especially for vacation destinations to include sufficient furniture such that you could stay there, (beds, couch, etc!) starting directly.
A house buyer in the UK would expect to have all the kitchen appliances (possibly not the fridge) included. The seller may want to offload his carpets and furniture and a buyer may well negotiate to buy them, but that is not standard. A new house would have all rooms bar the kitchen, empty.
In Ireland it is not normal (but is possible) for items of furniture to be included in a house sale. Anything can of course be included by agreement between the parties. However the most common arrangement is to include fixtures and fittings (including kitchen cabinets and built-in appliances) but not furniture or free-standing appliances.
It is standard here in Cayman for apartments and homes to be rented as furnished and vacation homes are sold furnished.
There is limited selection available on island for furniture purchase. Many people will make a trip to Miami and buy and entire container full of furniture to refit a home should they so choose. Delivery may take a few weeks and lots of fees for shipping, and customs clearance. But it is no slower than going through a furniture store that will place your custom order from the States.
In Spain I’ve seen both, as well as “semi-furnished” (the former owners are taking their favorite pieces but leaving the rest), “empty, kitchen furnished” and “furnished, kitchen empty”.
Normally the furniture doesn’t increase price a lot, or even at all: it was already there, has already “received use worth its cost” (“is fully depreciated” would be the usual translation of the financial version of this), and leaving it means the previous owners don’t need to move or dispose of it. For buyers who do not have furniture or who only have some pieces, it means that they can buy the new furniture piecemeal instead of needing to add the cost of a flatful of furnishings to that of the flat. Furniture is not part of appraised price, at least in theory.
It may be furniture rented temporarily for show during the sales period.
If the house is recently renovated, the idea is to show it its all put together… how it looks complete, in order to sell the renovation.
Yes the HH style tv show creates suspicion that the house isn’t really for sale when they do the “Mystery” house… its just something they knew was in the area. Well sometimes they say its "a bit outside the area’ but maybe sometimes its completely in a different place
Of course, there have been all sorts of things sold WITH a house… cars,boats, and of course furniture, and its sometimes extra and sometimes given away and sometimes inbetween.
You can only get a price accurate to 1% ,or something, and 1% of the value of a well to do persons house in/near a busy city is a lot, so its never clear whether the buyer is getting the car for free or paying too much for it.
In Quebec, it is normal to add any “inclusions” to a home sale contract. If the seller is leaving any appliances, furniture, or special fixtures (a chandelier, for example) in the home, that should be pointed out explicitly. Otherwise, the buyer cannot expect any of that to be present.
I’m following this thread with interest because I’ve had a related question for ages: Why are American home flipping shows so insistent on purchasing (not renting for demonstration) and installing nice appliances? Here, anyone shopping for a home might ask if the appliances are included, but would hardly expect them to be.