For a local move, most published UK guide prices land where you would expect a small flat to cost a few hundred pounds and a family house to cost four figures. A studio or one-bed flat shows up at £430 to £725 for a local job, and a five-bed house starts around £2,350. Those are indicative national ranges, not quotes, and we say more about where they come from further down. The honest answer to how much removals cost is that five things decide the number, and all five live in your home rather than in a pricing table.
But first, the short answer to the shorter question: nobody can price your move properly without seeing it. Any company that names a figure before a survey is giving you an estimate, and estimates in this trade have a habit of growing on the day. The form at the top of this page gets you surveyed quotes from vetted firms instead.
Removal costs at a glance
For local UK moves, indicative guide ranges run from £430 to £725 for a studio or one-bed flat up to £2,350 and above for a five-bed house, based on published prices checked in October 2026. Man and van rates typically run £36 to £57 an hour for one person and £96 to £152 an hour for two, per published booking data from more than 518,000 jobs. Packing services average around £400 extra. Distance, stairs, parking, the season and the day of the week all move the price. These are indicative ranges, not quotes: the accurate figure comes from a survey, and the quote form at the top of this page will get you surveyed prices from vetted firms free.
What decides the cost of removals
Volume, distance, access, timing and services. Those five decide what you pay, and they interact, which is why a national table can only ever be a ballpark.
Volume comes first because it decides the size of the vehicle and the size of the crew. A bedsit’s worth of boxes fits in one van with one man. A four-bed house usually means a lorry, a crew of three or more, and a full day at each end. Distance then sets the travel time and fuel. A move across town can be done twice in a day. A move to the other end of the country is a whole-day commitment for the crew either way.
Access is the one people underestimate. Third-floor flat with no lift, parking twenty metres from the door, a staircase with a turn halfway up: each of those adds time, and time is what a removal quote really prices. Timing matters for the same reason. Fridays, end-of-month dates and the summer months are when everyone wants to move, so that is when the best crews are committed first and prices sit at the top of the range. Services are the last lever: packing, materials, dismantling and reassembly, and storage all add to the bill, and all of them can be left out if you would rather do them yourself.
Removal costs by home size
Here are the indicative ranges for local moves, which we take to mean the same town or a neighbouring one.
| Home size | Indicative cost, local move |
|---|---|
| Studio or one-bed flat | £430 to £725 |
| Two-bed house | £700 to £1,200 |
| Three-bed house | £1,200 to £1,800 |
| Four-bed house | £1,800 to £2,350 |
| Five-bed house and up | £2,350 and above |
Data basis: indicative ranges compiled from published guide prices, checked 11 October 2026, none partner-validated yet. The band edges follow Bishop’s Move’s published 2025 price table (from £700 for a one to two-bed home, £1,200 for three beds, £1,800 for four beds and £2,350 for five or more, excluding VAT), with the studio and one-bed band taken from the local-move example on Sirelo’s UK cost calculator (£430 to £725). Checkatrade’s house removal cost guide puts a standard local move at £500 to £700, which sits inside the same span. Where a band’s upper edge runs past a published starting price, the extra allows for longer carries, poor access and part-loads. These are national figures and not quotes. We will replace them with ranges quoted by the removers we assess once that data is validated, and we will date the update.
Long-distance moves sit at the top of these ranges and above them, because the crew and vehicle are committed for the day regardless of what is in the van. London moves tend to price higher than the national picture too, for structural reasons: congestion charges, parking suspensions, and fewer places to put a lorry. If you are moving in the capital, our guide to removals in London covers what to expect there.
How much does a removal van cost?
If a full removal company is more than the job needs, the van question has two answers: hire a man and van, or drive a hired van yourself.
| Team | Indicative hourly rate |
|---|---|
| One person plus van | £36 to £57 |
| Two people plus van | £96 to £152 |
Data basis: indicative rates from AnyVan’s published man and van cost data, a UK-wide sample of more than 518,000 bookings, last updated March to April 2026 and checked 11 October 2026. Full-day and half-day equivalents appear on the same data, and rates vary by region, with London and remote areas at the top of the range.
A man and van suits single items, small flats and trips to storage. It is usually quoted hourly, so the price tracks time rather than volume. Self-drive van hire costs less still, but you are doing every lift yourself, you are liable for anything you break, and driving a van you have never driven, loaded by someone who has never loaded one, is its own risk. For a whole home, we think the surveyed crew is usually the better value, because the day it saves you and the insurance it carries are both real.
The extras that catch people out
Packing is the big one. Packing services average around £400 on top of the move, according to Checkatrade’s house removal cost guide (checked 11 October 2026), with materials extra unless stated. Doing it yourself saves that money, but read the insurance position first, because owner-packed boxes are commonly excluded from goods in transit cover.
After packing, budget for the smaller items that only show up late: parking suspensions or permits if either property sits on a controlled street, congestion or low-emission charges in city centres, and storage if the dates do not line up, which prices per container or per week depending on the type. None of these is huge on its own. Together they explain why the invoice rarely matches a bedroom-count estimate, and why we keep coming back to the survey.
Why two quotes for the same move differ
Two firms can look at the same three-bed semi and come back hundreds of pounds apart, and neither is necessarily wrong. One has priced a two-man crew and a Luton. The other has priced three men and asked harder questions about the stairs. The difference you are looking for is not the cheapest number. It is the quote that shows its working: what volume was surveyed, what vehicle, what crew, what is included, and what happens if the load turns out bigger than everyone thought.
That is also how you spot the lowball. A price that sits far below every surveyed quote usually means the survey was skipped, and the correction arrives when the crew is on your driveway. We cover the full vetting process in our guide to choosing a removal company, including the checks that catch this before you pay a deposit.
Compare removal quotes on the same basis
Type “moving house cost calculator” into a search engine and you will get a dozen instant answers in seconds, some of them good. What none of them can do is see your staircase, your parking, or the wardrobe that will not go round the landing. Calculators give you a ballpark, and the ranges on this page do the same job more honestly by dating their sources. The number you sign should come from a human who looked at your actual home.
So: get three quotes, built on the same survey basis, covering the same services, and compare them side by side with payment terms included. You can compare removal quotes through the form at the top of this page. We match you with firms that have already passed our vetting checks, the quotes come from surveys rather than guesses, and it costs nothing.
The short version
How much do removals cost? For a local move, indicatively £430 to £725 for a studio or one-bed flat, £700 to £1,200 for a two-bed house, £1,200 to £2,350 for a three or four-bed house, and £2,350 and above for five beds or more, on published October 2026 guide prices. Man and van runs £36 to £57 an hour for one person. Packing adds around £400 on average if you outsource it. Every figure here is a range with its basis attached, because a range is what the evidence supports and a single number would be a guess dressed up as fact.
When you want the real figure for your move, use the quote form at the top of this page, and we will bring you surveyed removal quotes from vetted firms, free. You can also browse every company we have assessed so far in our verified removers directory.