Staging is one of the few marketing tactics in real estate with a real research base behind it: the National Association of Realtors surveys agents about it regularly, and the pricing side is well documented. The numbers are worth knowing precisely, because they justify (or kill) line items in a marketing budget. Here are the statistics that matter in 2026 — what staging does to buyer perception, time on market and offers, and what each kind of staging actually costs. Every number links to its source.
About half of sellers' agents in NAR's Profile of Home Staging report reduced time on market for staged homes. It is survey data rather than a controlled experiment, but the finding is consistent across editions.
In NAR's data, 29% of agents report offer increases of 1-10% attributable to staging — roughly 20% report 1-5% and 10% report 6-10%. On a €300,000 property even the low end covers staging costs many times over.
Online — where buyers form first impressions — a well-staged photo does the same job regardless of whether the sofa is real. Physical staging still adds value during in-person showings, at 100-1000x the cost.
NAR's buyer data ranks the living room first (37%), then the primary bedroom (34%) and kitchen (23%). If budget is limited, stage in that order.