How To Estimate Home Moving Costs 2026

There is a simple calculation to estimate your home moving costs: Volume + Packing + Labour + Distance.

But that is just the basic cost of a home move; many extras could be added, and many things that you cannot put a monetary value on.

Once you know how to calculate your home moving costs, you can then compare the cost of a self-move with the cost of employing a reputable removal company.

A ballpark figure, maybe, but this will allow you to budget accordingly and decide which moving option is best for you.

How Much Do Removal Companies Cost?

Volume

This is the amount of space your household items will occupy in a removal vehicle. More belongings require more space to transport them and therefore a larger removal vehicle.

The average volume price charged by a reputable removal company is about £1.20 per cubic foot. For example:

• 1 Bedroom property – 250-500 Cubic feet – £300 – £640
• 2 Bedroom property – 500-700 Cubic feet – £600 – £865
• 3 Bedroom property – 750-1000 Cubic feet – £900 – £1260
• 4 Bedroom property – 1000-1500 Cubic feet – £1560 – £2040

Moving House Cost Reduction Tip: The easiest way to reduce your moving costs is to declutter your home. Sell, donate, or give away any items that you no longer need and will not be taking with you.

Must read: The Epic Guide to Decluttering for a Home Move. The one guaranteed way to reduce your home moving costs is to reduce the number of items you move to your new home. In this guide, we offer lots of useful tips and advice on how to declutter your home.

Labour Hours

This is the number of people and estimated hours it will take to load and unload your belongings.

Remember that things like the distance from your home to the removal vehicle and if the furniture has to be hauled down flights of stairs will affect this part of the calculation.

• The average hourly rate charged by a reputable moving company is £60-£72 per hour, per man, usually with a minimum charge of 2 hours.
• A 1-bedroom property may take 2-3 hours to move – £120 – £215 per man
• A 2-bedroom property may take 3-5 hours to move – £180 – £360 per man
• A 3 to 4-bedroom property may take 7 hours to move – £420 – £500 per man
• A 5-bedroom property may take 8-10 hours to move – £480 – £720 per man

Moving Home Cost Reduction Tip: Measure to ensure that your furniture fits in your new home. There is no point in paying removal costs only to find your furniture will not fit.

You may like to read: How to Create a Floor Plan. Creating a floor plan for your new home will enable you to calculate whether your furniture will fit in the space available and, critically, whether you can physically get your furniture into the room you want.

Distance

The removal company will charge you the cost of fuel from your old to the new property. They may also charge you from their depot to your home.

• The average charge made by a reputable removal company is £1.25 per mile.

The bad news: The distance between your old and new home is fixed. Nothing we can do about that. But if the charges between removal companies are wildly different, we need to find out what route the company is taking and why.

Extra Services

The average charges made by a reputable removal company for additional home moving services:

• Packing Service – £25 per person per hour. About £480 for a 3-bedroom house.
• Packing Materials – £120 for an average 3-bedroom house.
• Dismantling Furniture – £180 for an average 3-bedroom house.
• Cleaning – £25 per hour.
• Storage – £36 per week for a 100 sq. ft. container.

Using a reputable removal company will always be the easy, stress-free option. You will have a fixed price, the move itself will take half the time that a self-move would, and you gain the peace of mind that your home move will go as smoothly as possible.

Essential reading:

• What are the average costs of moving a 1 or 2-bedroom property? Compare the costs of hiring a professional removal company vs moving home by yourself.

• What is the average cost of moving a 3-bedroom property? Compare just how much it costs to move a 3-bedroom property yourself and how much a good removal company will charge.

How to Estimate Self-Move Costs

How to estimate the cost of a home move that you perform yourself is slightly harder to calculate.

There may not be immediate costs associated with your home move, but the potential for additional costs and stress is greatly increased when you do not use a professional removal company.

However, the factors that you need to take into consideration to estimate the cost of your house move are the same as when employing a reputable removal company.

Volume

• The standard home moving box is 3 cubic feet.
• A fridge freezer is 30 cubic feet.
• A 3.5t box van holds about 200 standard boxes.
• A 7.5t box van holds about 400 standard boxes.

That gives you a rough idea of how to calculate the space you will need in a van to load all your belongings.

A professional removal company will know exactly how to load a van to optimize space. It is unlikely you will have that knowledge, so a larger van may be required or an extra journey.

You may have chosen to pack your belongings yourself, using recycled boxes, so the boxes will not be a uniform shape or size. This may affect how many boxes you can fit into the hire van, resulting in multiple trips or needing to extend the van hire.

Don’t forget that you will also incur insurance excess charges of about £600–£1200 should you damage the vehicle.

• A 3.5t Luton van will move the average 1-2 bedroom property, taking about 200 standard boxes, and will cost about £110 – £155 per day.
• A 7.5t Box van will move the average 3-bedroom house, taking about 400 standard boxes, and will cost about £155 – £240 per day.

Labour Hours

This depends upon how reliable your friends and family are. If they fail to show up on moving day, you could be looking at about £48 per hour to hire labour.

Equally, how do you factor in the cost of a slipped disc or other personal injuries that you may sustain when performing contortions getting that wardrobe down the stairs?

The removal company will know exactly how to manoeuvre a settee through a doorway. You more than likely will not, so the whole moving process could take longer than expected and be far more hazardous.

On average, it will take twice as long to move home yourself as a reputable removal company would take.

You may also like to read: How to Get Friends to Help You Move Home. Many hands make light work, so in this guide, we look at how to ask friends to help you move home.

Distance

This is a simple MPG calculation, but don’t forget that some vehicle hire companies will have a cap on the number of free miles you can travel.

• A 3.5t vehicle averages 25mpg.
• A 7.5t vehicle averages 16mpg.

Additional Costs

Insurance – Factor in the cost of the additional insurance you will need to cover your belongings whilst in transit. Most removal companies will include this in their estimate.

Important: Note that many insurers will not cover items that you have packed yourself, and you will need Goods in Transit cover, so check your insurance very carefully.

Packing materials will add £72-£120 for a one to two bedroom property and £145-£240 for a three bedroom house.

Handling equipment – Sack barrows and straps will cost about £95 for a day’s hire.

You will likely need to hire a SatNav that is specific to large vehicles, as your car SatNav will probably send you down unsuitable routes. Expect to pay about £25 a day to hire a satnav.

Damage repair costs for your old and new home, as well as any damage caused to your belongings. When using a removal company they will be responsible for these costs.

Please remember that all of the above costs are averages, and are not specific to your home move.

But costs are only half the equation when moving home, and there is a whole range of skills and knowledge you may need to acquire to ensure a stress-free moving day.

There is a whole library of useful information for home movers to be found here in our home moving blog.

Good luck with your home move.