How much do removals cost in London?

Ask three London removal companies what a move costs and you will usually get three non-answers. “It depends.” “Give us a call.” “We will send someone round.” It does depend, of course, but the refusal to put a single number on the record is not caution. It is a pricing habit: keep the ball hidden until you are already committed to the booking.

We would rather do it the other way round. The guide ranges below are the same ones we publish on our house removals in London and office removals in London pages, inc VAT, with no asterisks. They will not tell you the exact price of your move, because no honest range can. They will tell you whether we are in your ballpark before you spend a minute on the phone, which is more than most movers will put in writing.

House move costs in London

Most London house moves with us land in these ranges:

These are guides, not quotes. The accurate figure comes from seeing the move - a video call or WhatsApp walk-through, or an in-person survey for larger homes. The survey is free and the price we agree is fixed before the move. We start at two-bedroom homes - studios and one-bedroom moves are not taken on their own.

A two-bed flat with a modest amount of furniture sits at the bottom of its band. A two-bed packed floor to ceiling, third floor with no lift, garage full of tools, sits at the top or above it. That spread is normal and it is exactly what the survey exists to price.

What the fixed quote covers (and what never gets added later)

The fixed quote covers the whole job, not just the van time: the crew, the vehicle, blankets and straps, the wrapping and floor protection, insurance for your belongings, and fuel. That last list matters more than most people realise, because it is the part of a removals quote nobody reads closely until the invoice arrives.

Across the industry, a handful of extras turn up on final bills so often they have practically become standard line items. Charges for stairs, priced per floor above ground. Long-carry fees when the van cannot park within so many metres of your door. Fuel surcharges, weekend uplifts, and wrapping materials itemised by the roll. None of them are hidden on purpose, exactly, but they are rarely in the number you first agreed to.

On an Aviv fixed quote, there is nothing to spring. Stairs, carries, fuel, materials, weekend working: the survey captures all of it, and the figure you sign covers all of it. If the third-floor walk up makes the job cost more, that cost is in the quote, not bolted on afterwards. The same goes for time: if the job runs past the hours we planned together, extra time is charged at a rate agreed with you before the crew starts, never invented on the day. The only other way your price changes is if the job itself changes - you add a garage clear-out to the move, or the third bedroom you forgot to mention reappears. Change the job and we will requote honestly; the job you described is the job you pay for.

Payment runs in two steps. A 10% deposit at booking secures your date, and the balance is due after the move is complete, once everything is in and you have seen the job done. We take payment by bank transfer, card or cash.

What drives the price

Where your move lands inside a range comes down to six things. Anyone who quotes you without looking at them is guessing.

None of these are tricks we use to inflate a quote. They are the same factors every remover prices against. The difference is that we look at them before naming a number, rather than after you have signed.

Office move costs

Offices are priced the same honest way, against size ranges that are easy to check yourself. Count your desks and you already know which band you are in:

Every office quote follows a walkthrough of the premises, or a video call for smaller ones. Lift bookings, loading bays, crate requirements and IT kit all change the plan, so we look before we price. The walkthrough is free, and the price we agree is fixed before anything is packed. More detail on how the bigger jobs run sits on our London office removals page.

Why we publish ranges

Because the fixed-quote model only works if you can see it coming.

The model works like this. You ask for a quote. We survey the move, free of charge, usually on a video call or a WhatsApp walk-through of about twenty minutes, or in person for larger homes. Then you get a fixed written quote. Not an estimate with “subject to change” tucked in the small print. A price, in writing, and the price we agree is the price you pay.

The published ranges are the front door to that process. They give you the ballpark before you commit any time, and the survey turns the ballpark into a fixed figure. If a company will not publish ranges, or will not survey before quoting, ask yourself which part of the price they are keeping flexible. Ours is fixed precisely so that nothing has to stay flexible on the day.

The same applies to storage if your dates do not line up. Our own sealed container storage at our yard keeps the move in one pair of hands, and our storage in London page carries the full rates rather than making you ring for them.

London-specific costs most guides skip

General cost guides read the same whether you are moving in Hull or Highgate. London adds its own layer, and it is worth knowing about it before you compare quotes, because some of it lands on you regardless of who you book.

The first layer is transport. London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone sets emissions standards for vehicles driving in the centre, and TfL maintains the current Congestion Charge details so you can see where and when the charges apply. On an Aviv move, any charge the job triggers is one of the costs baked into the quote rather than itemised on top of it.

The second layer is parking, and in most boroughs it costs more than the fuel does. Most of inner London sits inside controlled parking zones, and on a zoned street a removal lorry cannot legally wait in a resident bay while it is loaded. The practical answer is a parking suspension, where the council reserves the bays outside your home for the day. Each borough sets its own fees and notice periods, and the place to check yours is your own borough council’s website - search its parking pages for suspension costs and how much notice it needs. Where a street needs one, we help arrange the suspension with the council (council fee applies). A few of the main roads are TfL red routes, where stopping is restricted at the best of times, so for those addresses the plan is usually a side-road bay or a goods vehicle bay nearby rather than a suspension outside the door.

None of this changes the fixed-quote principle. It is why we survey before we quote: the congestion zone, the suspension, the red route, all of it is known at survey and inside the price before you sign anything.

Why our bands differ from the averages you have read

If you have spent time on comparison sites before landing here, our bottom-of-range figure for a two-bed may look higher than the averages you have seen. There is a straightforward reason for that.

Those published averages bundle together every kind of job that calls itself a move: studio and one-bed flats, part-loads sharing van space, and single-mover man-and-van runs. Aviv’s bands are not that. They are for full-service moves of two-bedroom homes and up, done by one trained crew with proper vehicles, with wrapping, floor protection and insurance for your belongings all included. You are not comparing like with like, and the difference at the bottom of the range is most of the story.

The top of each band is the honest part. A packed floor-to-ceiling two-bed on a third floor with no lift costs more than an empty-nester two-bed with a driveway, and no honest company can pretend otherwise. What we can promise is that which end of the band you land on is agreed at survey, in writing, before the lorry arrives - not worked out on the day.

Ready to price your move?

The ranges above got you a ballpark. The survey gets you the real number, and it costs nothing.

Prefer to talk first? Call 0207 846 0282 or email info@avivremovals.com. Tell us what you are moving and when, and we will tell you honestly where it lands - then prove it with a fixed written quote.

Written by Adam, owner of Aviv Removals - 15 years in the removals trade.