The guide
House Removal Costs in London, by Bedroom in full
What does each bedroom band actually cost?
Bedroom count is shorthand for volume, and volume is what a remover prices. A 3-bed with an empty loft and a bare garage can cost less than a well-stocked 2-bed with a cellar, which is why a video survey beats a bedroom dropdown every time.
- 2-bed house: from £520 — two-man crew, Luton van, four to six hours
- 3-bed house: from £690 — three-man crew, 7.5-tonne lorry, six to nine hours
- 4-bed house: from £950 — three-man crew, 7.5-tonne lorry, full day
- 5-bed+ house: from £1,290 — four-man crew, sometimes two days
- Whole-flat move: from £420 — two-man crew, Luton van
What genuinely adds to the price?
Three things: volume, access and distance — in that order. Volume is the loft, the garage, the shed, the garden furniture and the trampoline nobody mentioned. Access is stair turns, carry distance from the legal parking spot, lift availability and whether a 7.5-tonne lorry can physically reach the door.
Distance matters least inside London. A two-mile move from a fourth-floor walk-up costs more than a thirty-mile run between two houses with driveways, because you are buying crew hours, not miles.
Full pack, fragile-only or pack it yourself?
Full packing typically adds around £240 and buys you a day of professional labour, materials and — importantly — insurance cover on the way the items were packed. Fragile-only packing, around £120, covers kitchens, glass and artwork and is the value option for most families.
Packing yourself saves cash and costs evenings. Budget six weeks of two-hour sessions for a 3-bed, and be honest about whether those evenings exist. Most damage claims we see start with a supermarket box that was never rated to carry books.
Permits, ULEZ and the Congestion Charge
A bay suspension outside your door typically costs a council fee per day and needs five to ten working days' notice. It is not an optional extra in most inner-London streets — without it the crew carries everything to the nearest legal space, and you pay for those hours instead.
ULEZ applies London-wide and the Congestion Charge applies in the central zone on charging days. Both should already be inside your quote. If they appear as a surprise line on the invoice, that was a pricing decision, not a surcharge.
Storage between completion dates
When your sale completes before your purchase, container storage bridges the gap from around £22 per week. The move becomes two half-days — load to store, store to new house — so budget a second crew visit rather than a single door-to-door price.
Ask whether storage is containerised and insured, whether access is possible mid-term, and what the minimum term is. Weekly, no tie-in, is the fair standard.
How do I compare quotes like for like?
Put the quotes side by side and check five columns: crew size, vehicle size, hours included, what happens after those hours, and whether packing materials are inside the figure. Two quotes that differ by £200 usually differ by one crew member and three hours.
- Was the quote produced from a video survey or a phone guess?
- Is dismantle and reassemble included, or charged per item?
- Are parking permits and ULEZ inside the number?
- What is the waiting-time rate if completion runs late?
- Is goods-in-transit insurance included, and to what limit?
Doorstep re-quote red flags
Quotes given without seeing the property, prices that only hold 'subject to volume on the day', and refusal to state waiting-time terms all point the same way. So does an unusually low headline hourly rate: the hours, not the rate, decide the invoice.
The fix is simple and free — insist on a video survey and a written figure. Fifteen minutes on a phone call removes the entire category of moving-day argument.