How Much Does It Cost to Move a 3-Bedroom House?
There is no single price for moving a three-bedroom house, and any guide that gives you one figure is averaging jobs that have nothing in common.
Across seven moves we have completed and published in full, the totals ran from £1,440 to £5,676 including VAT. The cheapest was a twelve-mile move done in a day. The dearest took six days, three lorries and a spell in storage. Same number of bedrooms is not the same job.
What follows is not an estimate. It is the actual figure for each of those seven moves, with the volume, the distance, the number of days and what was included, so you can find the one that looks like yours.
What actually decides the cost of a three-bedroom move?
Four things set the price, and the number of bedrooms is not really one of them. Bedrooms are shorthand for volume, and volume is what we actually measure. The seven moves below range from 1,070 to 2,285 cubic feet, and every one of them came out of a house someone would describe as three bedrooms or thereabouts.
Volume, and the vehicles it needs
Volume decides how many vehicles and how many crew. A 1,600 cubic foot load at Angmering needed two vehicles because the second address could not take one large lorry. A 1,735 cubic foot house at Midhurst needed three, because it was going 220 miles and nothing was coming back for a second run. The load is measured at survey, not guessed from the number of bedrooms.
Distance, and whether the crew gets home
Distance matters far less than most people expect until it crosses the point where the crew cannot get back the same day. Twelve miles and forty-nine miles are both a normal day. Two hundred and twenty miles means an overnight stop, a second day to unload, and hotel costs inside the price. That is the step that moves a figure, not each extra mile.
Packing, and who does it
Packing is the single biggest thing you control. On the Chichester job, the removals came to £795 plus VAT and the full house packing added £450 plus VAT — a little over a third of the total. Owner-packed moves are cheaper on the invoice and slower on the day. Both are legitimate choices, and the table below has examples of each.
Access, stairs and the day itself
Access is the variable that turns a straightforward move into a long one. A flight of stairs at the delivery end, a lane that will not take a full-size lorry, a completion that hands over keys at four in the afternoon — each adds time, and time is what is actually being priced. We check all of it at survey rather than finding out on the day.
The distance was almost nothing. The service was everything.Uckfield to Turners Hill — four miles, three days, £3,474
Seven real three-bedroom moves, and what each one cost
Every figure here is the total the customer paid, including VAT, for a job we completed and wrote up in full. Each row links to the whole story of that move.
| The move | Volume | Distance | Days | What was involved | Total inc VAT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Angmering to Shoreham | 1,600 cu ft | 12 miles | 1 day | Two vehicles, furniture dismantled and rebuilt, no packing | £1,440 |
| Chichester to Martin, near Salisbury | 1,070 cu ft | 61 miles | 2 days | Removals plus full house packing | £1,494 |
| Bracknell to Thakeham | 1,350 cu ft | 49 miles | 2 days | Owner-packed, plus an £80 key-wait waiver on completion day | £1,686 |
| Petworth into containerised store | 2,285 cu ft | — | 2 days | Packed, wrapped and run into store — the delivery out was billed separately | £2,430 |
| Uckfield to Turners Hill | 1,400 cu ft | 4 miles | 3 days | Full packing and full unpacking, essentials left out overnight | £3,474 |
| Midhurst to Cheshire | 1,735 cu ft | 220 miles | 3 days | Three vehicles, fragile packing, overnight stop, two-day unload | £4,140 |
| Horsham to Itchingfield | — | 3 miles | 6 days | Full packing and materials, three lorries, storage in the middle | £5,676 |
Straightforward local moves: £1,440 to £1,686
The Angmering to Shoreham move is the closest thing here to a standard three-bedroom job: 1,600 cubic feet, twelve miles, two vehicles, the furniture dismantled at one end and rebuilt at the other, all inside one day. £1,200 plus VAT, or £1,440 including it.
The Bracknell to Thakeham move was 1,350 cubic feet over forty-nine miles, packed by the owners, on a completion day. The removals were £1,325 plus VAT. An £80 key-wait waiver was added because completion days do not run to timetable, which brought it to £1,686 including VAT.
When packing is part of the job: £1,494 to £3,474
The Chichester to Martin move ran 1,070 cubic feet sixty-one miles into a period cottage near Fordingbridge, over two days. Removals £795 plus VAT, full house packing £450 plus VAT, £1,494 including VAT for the pair.
The Uckfield to Turners Hill move shows the other end of the same idea. Four miles, 1,400 cubic feet, but three days, because the crew packed the whole house and then unpacked it again at the far end. £3,474 including VAT. The distance was almost nothing. The service was everything.
Long distance: £4,140
The Midhurst to Cheshire move was 1,735 cubic feet off a narrow lane into three vehicles, the fragile items and pictures packed, the furniture dismantled, floors protected at both ends, 220 miles with an overnight stop and two days of unloading and rebuilding. £3,450 plus VAT, £4,140 including it. Roughly three times the local job, for roughly the same volume.
Multi-day moves, and moves that go through storage
The Horsham to Itchingfield move is the dearest on this page and only three miles door to door. Six days, full packing and materials, dismantling and reassembly, three lorries and storage in the middle while the barn conversion was finished. £5,676 including VAT. Insurance cover for the goods was arranged as part of it and confirmed in writing before the job.
Storage is often billed in two halves rather than one. On the Petworth to Weardale move, packing 2,285 cubic feet and running it into containerised storage came to £2,430 including VAT. Taking it back out and delivering it 321 miles north, three days with a crew away overnight, came to £5,340 including VAT. If your move involves a gap between houses, expect the cost in two parts like this.
How does that sit against our published pricing?
The only price band we publish across the site is for a smaller job: a typical local two-bed move runs £650 to £1,250 plus VAT.
That band is genuinely for two-bedroom moves, and we have deliberately not turned it into a three-bedroom figure, because the seven jobs above show how wide the real spread is. Wolves Removals
What the jobs do show is the shape of it. A local three-bedroom move with no packing sat at £1,440 and £1,686. Add packing, distance or days and it climbs from there. If you want a number for your own house rather than someone else's, our house removals service is priced from a survey, and you can get a fixed quote from a video walk-round without anyone visiting.
Are these figures high?
Compare like with like. National cost guides usually quote one average across every kind of mover, from a shared-van part-load to a full-service firm, and often do not say whether VAT is included.
The guides that do break their figures down by region put a three-bedroom move in the South East at roughly £1,175 to £1,535. Our cheapest comparable job, £1,440 for the Angmering move, sits inside that band — and that total includes VAT, a trained crew, protective materials, floor protection, dismantling and rebuilding, and placement in the right rooms. It also belongs to a move that actually happened, rather than to a model.
How can you bring the cost of a three-bedroom move down?
Four things genuinely move the figure, and none of them involves cutting corners on the day.
- Pack what you can yourself. The Chichester job put packing at a little over a third of the total. If you have the time and the boxes, that is the largest single saving available to you. If you do not, our full packing service buys a crew and every carton, roll and reel.
- Declutter before the survey, not after. The quote is built on the volume we measure. Anything that goes to the tip or the charity shop after we have measured is volume you have already paid for.
- Be flexible on the date if you can. Fridays and month-ends are the busiest days in the trade. A midweek move mid-month is easier to crew.
- Match the service to the load. Not every job needs a full removal. For a single room, a few boxes or a student load, our man and van service starts from £80. For a three-bedroom house it will not be enough, and we will say so.
How do you get an accurate quote for a three-bedroom move?
By having someone look at the actual house. Every figure on this page came from a survey, either in person or as a video walk-round on a phone, and every quote we send is itemised so you can see what each part costs and take parts out if you want to.
We are a family-run firm based at Ashington, between Horsham and Worthing, and we have been moving households across Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Kent since 2016. We are fully insured, hold an operator's licence, are Checkatrade members and are a LAPADA Approved Service Provider for antiques and fine art. If you want a real number for your own move rather than an average of everyone else's, tell us about it here or call 01903 893731.
The Wolves Removals Team
Family-run removals · Ashington, West Sussex
We have moved families and businesses across West and East Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Kent since 2016, from our Ashington base. We are fully insured, Checkatrade-verified and a LAPADA Approved Service Provider for antiques and fine art. More about us, or read our reviews.
How Much Does It Cost to Move a 3-Bedroom House? — FAQs
There is no single figure, because bedroom count does not decide the price — volume, distance, packing and the number of days do. Across seven three-bedroom-scale moves we have completed and published in full, the totals ran from £1,440 to £5,676 including VAT. The lowest was 1,600 cubic feet moved twelve miles in a single day with no packing. The highest was a six-day move with full packing, three lorries and a spell in storage, over a distance of just three miles. A straightforward local three-bedroom move with no packing sat between £1,440 and £1,686 including VAT in those jobs.
Not unless you ask for it. Packing is quoted separately because it is the biggest thing you control. On one of our published moves, from Chichester to a cottage near Salisbury, the removals came to £795 plus VAT and the full house packing added £450 plus VAT — a little over a third of the total bill. On a larger job from Uckfield to Turners Hill, full packing and full unpacking turned a four-mile move into a three-day one at £3,474 including VAT. Ask for both figures separately so you can decide which you want.
The jump comes when the crew can no longer get home the same day, not from each extra mile. A twelve-mile move and a forty-nine-mile move are both a normal day's work and cost much the same. A move from Midhurst to Cheshire — 1,735 cubic feet, 220 miles, three vehicles, an overnight stop and two days of unloading — came to £4,140 including VAT, roughly three times a local job of similar volume. The extra pays for the second and third vehicle, the driver hours and the overnight accommodation.
Only as a floor. Our published guide of £650 to £1,250 plus VAT is for a typical local two-bedroom move, and we have deliberately not stretched it to cover three bedrooms. Our own completed three-bedroom-scale jobs started at £1,440 including VAT for the simplest local move with no packing, and rose from there once packing, distance, extra days or storage were involved. Treat a two-bed guide as the least a bigger job could cost, then expect the survey to add to it.
Pack it yourself, declutter before the survey rather than after it, and move midweek and mid-month if your chain allows. Packing was a little over a third of the bill on one of our published jobs, so it is the largest saving available. Decluttering matters because the quote is built on the volume measured at survey, so anything disposed of afterwards is volume already paid for. A man and van service starts from £80 for small loads, but it will not cover a three-bedroom house and we will tell you so rather than send too small a vehicle.
Because the quotes are usually not for the same job. One may include packing materials and labour, another may not. One may include dismantling and rebuilding furniture, floor protection at both ends and placement in the right rooms, another may be a vehicle and two people for the day. Our quotes are itemised for exactly this reason, so you can see what each part costs and compare like with like. When you collect quotes, ask each firm what happens if completion is delayed — that answer varies more than the headline price.
Yes. Removals are a standard-rated service in the UK, so VAT applies. It is worth checking how any figure you are comparing is presented, because some quotes and cost guides are shown before VAT and some after, which makes a twenty per cent difference to what you actually pay. Every headline total on this page is stated including VAT, and where we give the pre-VAT figure we say so. Our quotes show both.
As early as you can, and earlier still for a Friday or the end of a month, which are the busiest slots in the trade. Booking early costs nothing and protects the date you want. Because completion dates move, we would rather hold a provisional date and firm it up than have you wait for certainty that may never arrive before the diary fills. If your dates slip, storage can bridge the gap — two of the seven moves on this page did exactly that.
