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How much does it cost to move house in the UK in 2026? A 3-bedroom local move typically costs around £1,020 with a full-service removal firm and you packing your own boxes. The realistic span runs from roughly £705 if you use a part-load operator on flexible dates, up to about £1,380 if you have the movers pack for you as well. Moving long distance lifts the typical figure to around £1,770. Two choices move your price more than anything else: which kind of mover you book, and whether you pack yourself. Below you’ll find real UK removal costs broken down by size, distance and region, with both of those choices priced separately so you can see what each one is worth.
What you pay for a house removal comes down to three things: how much you’re moving, how far it’s going, and which kind of mover you book. That last one surprises people, because it changes the price more than distance does. The table below shows all three price points for a local move, so you can see the spread before you start comparing quotes.
| Property Size | Part-load (shared van, you pack) | Standard (removal company, you pack) | Premium (full service, they pack) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Bedroom Flat | £430 | £470 | £725 |
| 2 Bedroom House | £545 | £715 | £1,015 |
| 3 Bedroom House | £705 | £1,020 | £1,380 |
| 4 Bedroom House | £865 | £1,325 | £1,745 |
| 5 Bedroom House | £1,060 | £1,630 | £2,110 |
Last updated: August 2026. Local moves under 50 miles, all including VAT.
A 3-bedroom house is the size most people in the UK move, and it typically costs around £1,020 locally with a removal company if you pack your own boxes. The same move runs about £705 with a part-load or man-and-van operator, where you share vehicle space and take flexible dates, and about £1,380 if you have the movers pack for you as well. The part-load saving is not a discount on the same service, it’s a genuinely different product: you give up an agreed date and a van to yourself.
If you want a more precise figure based on exactly what you own, room by room, our removal volume calculator will get you closer to an exact number before you request quotes.
What the job actually looks like on moving day also varies a lot by size:
| Property Size | Volume | Crew | Van Size | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Bedroom Flat | 10–15 m³ | 1–2 people | Small or medium | 4–7 hours |
| 2 Bedroom House | 18–25 m³ | 2 people | Medium | 8–12 hours |
| 3 Bedroom House | 28–35 m³ | 2–3 people | Large or Luton | 1 day |
| 4 Bedroom House | 38–45 m³ | 3–4 people | Large Luton or multiple vehicles | 1–2 days |
| 5 Bedroom House | 48–60 m³ | 4–5 people | Multiple Luton vans or a larger truck | 1–2 days |
These are typical ranges, not fixed figures. A company will confirm exact crew size and van type after seeing your inventory or a video survey.
Where you’re moving from matters, mostly because of crew wages: a removal is roughly half to two-thirds labour, so regional pay differences feed almost directly into the quote. Here’s what a 3-bedroom local move tends to cost across the UK, from you packing your own boxes up to the movers packing everything:
| UK Region | Avg Removal Cost (3-Bed) |
|---|---|
| London | £1,255 – £1,615 |
| Southeast | £1,175 – £1,535 |
| Scotland | £1,160 – £1,520 |
| East of England | £1,100 – £1,460 |
| East Midlands | £1,020 – £1,380 |
| West Midlands | £1,020 – £1,380 |
| Northwest | £1,020 – £1,380 |
Last updated: August 2026. Prices including VAT, for a local move under 50 miles.
London is the dearest place to hire a crew and the Midlands and Northwest the cheapest, a spread of about 23% on the same job. The gap between the two columns stays at £360 wherever you are, because the van, the boxes and the packing labour cost much the same across the country. It’s the crew’s wages that move.
Worth knowing if you’re moving somewhere thinly served: the pattern can reverse at the budget end. Part-load and backload operators price on whether a van is already making your trip, so they are competitive in busy corridors and dearer in rural areas where someone has to pay for the empty return leg. Rural moves can therefore be cheaper with a removal company and more expensive part-load, which is the opposite of what most people assume.
Distance is the other main driver. A long-distance move costs roughly 70% more than a local one of the same size, mostly through fuel, drive time and driver hours. These are the Standard prices from the table above, with you packing your own boxes; the part-load and premium spread applies at every distance.
| Property Size | Local (under 50 mi) | Regional (50–125 mi) | Long Distance (125+ mi) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Bedroom Flat | £470 | £610 | £825 |
| 2 Bedroom House | £715 | £925 | £1,245 |
| 3 Bedroom House | £1,020 | £1,320 | £1,770 |
| 4 Bedroom House | £1,325 | £1,715 | £2,295 |
| 5 Bedroom House | £1,630 | £2,105 | £2,825 |
Last updated: August 2026. Standard prices including VAT, excluding packing service.
If you want the cheapest long-distance removal, book 4 to 6 weeks ahead and steer clear of peak periods: the end of the month, school holidays, and the summer season from June to August, when demand and prices are at their highest. Peak timing adds around 17% to the transport element.
One route works differently from the figures above. A move to Ireland is priced on a different basis because the goods travel by ferry or container rather than being driven the whole way, and our guide to moving to Ireland sets out what that costs.
A full-service removal company isn’t the only option. Here’s how the three main choices stack up for a 3-bedroom local move:
| Option | Typical Cost (3-Bed, Local Move) | What’s Included |
|---|---|---|
| Full-service removal company | £1,020 – £1,380 | Dedicated crew and van, agreed date, basic goods-in-transit insurance. Packing optional. |
| Man-and-van or part-load | around £705 | Shared vehicle, flexible dates, transport only. You pack. |
| Self-drive van hire | £50 – £200/day | Van only. You do the loading, driving and unloading. |
A self-drive removal van costs £50 to £200 a day, depending on the size of van and how long you need it, and that’s before fuel and any damage waiver. A man-and-van or part-load service, where two people come with the van, works out at £50 to £80 an hour instead. Which of the two is cheaper comes down to how much you’re moving and whether you can face doing the lifting yourself: self-drive is the lowest sticker price, but you’re taking on all the labour, the driving and the risk.
The bigger your move, the more the part-load discount is worth: on a one-bedroom flat it’s under 10%, on a five-bedroom house it’s around 35%. Man-and-van operators price on whether a vehicle is already making your trip, so flexible dates are what unlock the saving.
If you’re weighing a removal company against doing more of it yourself, here’s the trade-off in short:
Most UK removal companies price a job one of three ways. Volume-based pricing charges by the cubic metre of items you’re moving, worked out from an inventory or a video survey, and it’s the most common method for full-service moves. Flat-rate pricing gives you one fixed price for the whole job once the company has seen your inventory and route, which suits people who want cost certainty over flexibility. Hourly pricing, common with man-and-van services, charges by the hour plus a callout fee. A crew of two with a van runs £50 to £80 an hour in the UK, and a rough guide is half an hour of crew time per cubic metre including travel, so a 30 m³ three-bedroom move works out at 14 to 18 hours of a two-person crew.
That hourly figure is a useful sanity check on any volume-based quote you’re given. If the two methods disagree by more than about a quarter, something in the quote needs explaining.
Whichever method a company uses, ask upfront how they’ve priced your move and what happens if the job takes longer or your inventory turns out bigger than expected on the day. That’s usually where “surprise” costs come from, not the base quote itself.
Beyond property size and distance, several other factors move your removal quote up or down:
A professional removal company price typically covers:
What it usually doesn’t cover unless you ask: full packing and unpacking, dismantling and reassembling furniture, storage, and specialist handling for pianos, antiques or artwork. If you need any of these, get a written quote that spells them out. “All-in” removal costs can vary by 30% to 50% between companies depending on what’s actually bundled in.
Packing is the choice that moves your quote most after the type of mover you book. A full packing service, where the crew packs your whole home and supplies the materials, costs roughly £8 per cubic metre plus a fixed charge of around £150.
| Property Size | Full Packing Service | Fragile-Only | Materials Only (you pack) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Bedroom Flat | £300 | £120 | £50 |
| 2 Bedroom House | £380 | £150 | £80 |
| 3 Bedroom House | £480 | £190 | £120 |
| 4 Bedroom House | £580 | £230 | £160 |
| 5 Bedroom House | £680 | £270 | £200 |
Including VAT. The Typical prices quoted throughout this guide assume materials only; the full-service column adds the difference.
Fragile-only packing is a useful middle option: the crew handles china, glass and artwork and you do the rest, at around 40% of the full-pack price. If you’re packing everything yourself, ask your removal company about a free box delivery beforehand.
The quoted price rarely covers everything. A few costs that catch people out:
None of these are large on their own, but together they can add a few hundred pounds to a quote that looked complete on paper.
Here’s the same move, a 3-bedroom house of 30 m³ moving locally with a parking permit needed at one end, priced three ways:
| Cost Item | Part-load | Standard | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transport, crew and van | £487 | £750 | £750 |
| Packing | £100 (materials) | £100 (materials) | £400 (they pack) |
| Parking permit | £115 | £115 | £115 |
| Basic goods-in-transit insurance | Included | Included | Included |
| VAT | £140 | £193 | £253 |
| Estimated total | £842 | £1,158 | £1,518 |
Illustrative, not a quote. Enhanced cover above the basic level isn’t shown, because it’s a separate purchase you can price once you know what your contents are worth.
Use it to sense-check the real quotes you get rather than as a substitute for getting them.
The removal is usually one of the smaller lines in a house move. The full cost of moving house in the UK averages around £13,000 on a typically priced £292,000 home when you buy and sell in the same chain, and most of that has nothing to do with the removal company.
| Cost | Typical 2026 Range | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Stamp duty | Varies widely | Buying. Usually the largest single cost, and depends entirely on the price and whether you’re a first-time buyer. |
| Estate agent fees | 0.5% to 3% of the sale price, plus VAT | Selling |
| Conveyancing and legal fees | £800 – £2,200 | Both. Add £300 to £800 if the property is leasehold. |
| Survey | £400 – £1,100 | Buying, depending on the level of survey you choose |
| Energy Performance Certificate | £35 – £150 | Selling |
| Mortgage arrangement and valuation | £0 – £1,500 | Buying, and varies a lot by lender and product |
| Removals | £430 – £3,300 | The part this guide covers |
2026 figures. Stamp duty is left as a range because it depends on the purchase price and your circumstances rather than on any fixed rate, so check the current thresholds before you budget.
Removals is one of the few items on this list where shopping around changes what you actually pay. Estate agent and conveyancing fees are largely set by your property’s value and your solicitor’s rates, but removal quotes for the same job routinely vary by hundreds of pounds.
For everything else you need to sort before moving day, see our moving house checklist.
Look for BAR membership (British Association of Removers), which points to professional standards and proper dispute cover. Beyond that, ask what level of goods-in-transit cover is included and what it would take to raise it, look for genuine customer reviews, and favour a company willing to survey your home before giving you a final price.
The most reliable way to find out what your move will actually cost is to compare quotes from at least three removal companies. Prices for the same job can vary by 30% to 50% between providers, so it’s worth the extra ten minutes.
If you’d rather get an instant ballpark first, our free removal cost calculator gives you an estimate in seconds based on your property size and destination. Come back here afterwards to check it against this guide’s size, distance and regional price tables.
