Renting fab furniture on flexible terms

Renting furniture in Singapore gives you so much flexibility and is ideal for a lot of scenarios. It avoids having a large financial outlay for furniture and accessories when you move here or move in to your first home. It’s also hard to make buying decisions in a short time period – it adds stress to an already stressful situation. While a few companies do furniture rental in Singapore, there’s a new hybrid model that offers both an online and showroom option. This affordable new kid on the block is from established furniture store Soul & Tables, and it’s called Flexisnug.

Other scenarios where renting or hiring furniture works best:

• if you’re only here short term or you’re not sure how long you’ll be here – this could be due to a relocation for work, or if you’re renting while waiting for a renovation or BTO;
• if you’re in a small place and you need to convert a study to a bedroom when friends or family are coming to stay;
• when you’re trying to sell a house and you want hired furniture and accessories to make it look fab until it’s sold; and,
• when you can’t make up your mind and don’t want to waste money buying something you’re really not sure about.

Other benefits of renting furniture

If you’ve just started living in Singapore, or you recently got married or moved in together, it’s hard to afford everything at once. Renting is a worthwhile alternative to buying cheaply-made items that will end up in landfill when you don’t need them anymore or they start falling apart.

How it works

Flexisnug operates a very cool website that lets you choose furniture by product, by room (living or dining room, for example), by brand, and by period of time. Rental periods range from just a single one day up to a few years. The company is also working on some package solutions for those who don’t want to spend too much time choosing all the pieces themselves and prefer a turnkey solution.

We asked Jonathan from Flexisnug five key questions about the concept:

#1 You’ve got fantastic products from top furniture brands like Ethnicraft, Fermob, Woven + and so on. What else is different to other rental companies in Singapore?

We target a broader audience than just expats who are relocated by large multinationals and receive a monthly budget for furniture rental in their package. Being more affordable, we hope to broaden the audience for furniture rental to end-consumers who will pay from their own pocket and who’ll find it a more convenient and affordable solution than buying.

We’re also targeting locals who are waiting for the BTO (Build to Order) on their HBD flat to be ready or for renovations to be completed.

Finally, we also work with commercial players from the hospitality and F&B industries, along with offices, event agencies and media companies.

Flexibility is extremely important to us, which is why there’s no penalty for changing the terms of your lease – for example, shortening the rental period. There’s also no penalty for damage resulting from wear and tear. Plus, you can buy the pieces at any time, and all payments already made will be deducted from retail price.

Lastly and most importantly, sustainability is the primary reason for launching this new concept. We only select products that can be easily repaired, maintained and touched up, such as solid wood. They can then be rented to different consumers for many years and still be as good as new every time. We never work with products like veneer that will need to be disposed after a few rentals, as this defeats the whole purpose.

#2 And it’s not just furniture, it’s also accessories, right?

We want people to feel cosy at home even if it’s only for a few months. So, we decided to offer our accessories for rent. These include our popular Notre Monde trays and trayholders, amazing cushions from Mae Woven, and Fermob lamps. As we grow, we will definitely extend the product range.

#3 How do you keep the prices so low?

Our collaboration with Soul & Tables makes us a hybrid model. By mixing retail and rental, we save on costs. This is mainly due to the synergies between the two entities – the showroom, sales staff, IT system, inventory, delivery team, warehouse and workshop, for example.

Additionally, we only select products that can be rented for many years, spreading the costs over many rental periods. For example, our wooden furniture is made of solid wood that can be repaired and re-finished to look as good as new.

#4 How do you manage wear and tear on rental furniture?

We have a repair workshop here in Singapore and every piece that isn’t new will go through it before getting rented again. That way, the condition is always as good as new. As explained above, we only work with products that are repairable. This also allows us not to worry about normal wear and tear such as scratches and stains so our customers can enjoy the products without feeling anxious about damaging them.

#5 How much would it cost to rent furniture for a two-bed apartment, for example?

It’s not an easy question to answer as it depends on the items selected and the chosen lease period. The longer the period, the cheaper the monthly price.

But to give an example, two beds, one nightstand, one one-seater and one three-seater sofa, one coffee table, and one four-to-six-person dining table and four chairs will cost you S$368 a month for a six-month period, or $$280 a month for a 12-month period.

For more information, go to our site or contact us at 9011 1149.

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Rebecca Bisset

Heading up Expat Living, Rebecca started off in photography and video. A bit of a nomad before Singapore, she likes to travel when she can but she finds looking at properties as exciting! One day she's going to build her own house...