Studio flat move
£340 to £620
One room and a kitchen, usually one van and one run.
What sets the price →Man and van cost in Central London
A single item costs £90 to £220. A one bedroom flat costs £420 to £850. A three bedroom house costs £1,050 to £2,000. Those are the figures our jobs actually come out at, VAT and the Congestion Charge included, and below is what moves them.
£130
a single item, typically
£580
a one bedroom flat
£950
a two bedroom flat
£1,400
a three bedroom house
What each job costs
Every band below is a real spread rather than a starting price with an asterisk. The bottom of each one is a lift or a ground floor at both ends with somewhere legal to park. The top is a walk-up, a long carry, or a Saturday at the end of the month.
| Job | Price | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| Single item or small deliveryA sofa, a wardrobe, a marketplace pickup | £90 to £220 | A sofa, a wardrobe, a marketplace pickup |
| Studio flatOne room, one van, one run | £340 to £620 | One room, one van, one run |
| One bedroom flatTwo crew, four to five hours | £420 to £850 | Two crew, four to five hours |
| Two bedroom flatA Luton, or a transit and two runs | £680 to £1,400 | A Luton, or a transit and two runs |
| Three bedroom houseA full day and three or four crew | £1,050 to £2,000 | A full day and three or four crew |
| Four bedroom houseA full day, sometimes split over two | £1,650 to £2,900 | A full day, sometimes split over two |
| Small office, up to ten desksUsually an evening or a Saturday | £650 to £1,600 | Usually an evening or a Saturday |
| House or flat clearancePriced on volume, tipping fees included | £280 to £1,700 | Priced on volume, tipping fees included |
| Student roomOne hall room, priced per room not per flat | £150 to £340 | One hall room, priced per room not per flat |
| Specialist single itemPiano, pool table, safe, aquarium | £180 to £950 | Piano, pool table, safe, aquarium |
| Long distance, out of LondonA dedicated van, priced per route | £350 to £6,200 | A dedicated van, priced per route |
Bigger than any of these? Offices above twenty desks and houses above four bedrooms are quoted after a look at the building rather than from a form. Send us the addresses and we will come back with one figure.
Why we quote the job instead of the hour
Most London firms bill by the hour, and the published rates run like this.
One person and a small van
£55 to £80 an hour
Two people and a Luton
£95 to £150 an hour
Three people and a Luton
£130 to £190 an hour
Four people and a larger vehicle
£170 to £240 an hour
Two people and a Luton at £120 an hour is a reasonable Central London rate, and on a one bedroom flat with two flights of stairs the job takes four to five hours door to door. That is £480 to £600, plus a two hour minimum you pay whether you use it or not, plus the Congestion Charge, plus whatever the firm calls a stairs surcharge. Our figure for the same flat is £580 and it does not move.
The gap is not generosity. It comes from the fact that the things which make a Central London move run long belong to us rather than to you. A shared goods lift that gives you one trip every fifteen minutes. Forty minutes stuck on Buckingham Palace Road. A concierge who went to lunch without telling anyone. We chose the route, the crew and the van, and we are the ones who should have asked about the lift. Billing you by the hour means charging you for our own planning.
What we ask in return is two minutes of detail up front: both addresses, the floor at each end, whether there is a lift, roughly what is being moved. An hourly firm never needs to ask, because whatever the answer turns out to be, you are the one paying for it.
The lines other firms add at the end
This is where a cheap quote stops being cheap. Everything here is inside the figure we give you, with one exception, and the exception is the one we cannot control.
- Congestion Charge£18
- A day, and it went up from £15 in January 2026. Almost every Central London move crosses the zone. Inside our price.
- ULEZ£12.50
- A day, for a non compliant vehicle, and separate from the Congestion Charge. Inside our price.
- Fuel and mileageno charge
- There is no per mile addition on any job we quote, inside the zone or out of it.
- Stairs and long carriesno surcharge
- Already inside the figure, because we asked about the floor before quoting rather than after.
- Waiting timeno charge
- A slow goods lift or a late completion costs you nothing. On an hourly rate it is the largest thing you cannot control.
- Minimum bookingnone
- Hourly firms hold you to two or three hours whether the job needs it or not. A twenty minute delivery is priced as a twenty minute delivery.
- Council bay suspension£45 to £120 a day
- The one thing we pass through rather than absorb. Set by the borough, paid in advance, shown as its own line in the quote at exactly what the council charged.
Cost by job type
Each of these has the worked examples behind the band: real Central London jobs, the access at both ends, and what they came out at.
One bedroom flat move
£420 to £850
The most common Central London job, and the one access changes most.
What sets the price →Two bedroom flat move
£680 to £1,400
A Luton and two or three crew, and the point where volume starts to matter.
What sets the price →Three bedroom house move
£1,050 to £2,000
A full day, a full crew, and completion timing nobody controls.
What sets the price →Single item delivery
£90 to £220
One sofa, one wardrobe, one marketplace pickup, carried rather than couriered.
What sets the price →Office move
£650 to £1,600
Up to ten desks, usually out of hours, usually with a building that has rules.
What sets the price →House clearance
£280 to £1,700
Priced on what fills the van and what the tip charges to take it.
What sets the price →Why Central London prices differ from London prices
Published London averages are built from the whole city, and most of the city is not Zone 1. In Croydon or Ealing the price is set by distance and volume. In the centre it is set by access, which is why we ask about the floor before we ask about the furniture.
Three things do most of it. Almost every street sits in a controlled parking zone, so a van left on a single yellow during the working day gets ticketed and we either find a bay or pay the borough £45 to £120 a day to suspend one. A large share of the housing stock is Georgian and Victorian conversions, where the staircase turns at every half landing and a wardrobe will not go round it assembled. And the streets themselves rule out the vehicle: cobbled mews in Belgravia, the lanes off Shad Thames, basement bays with a two metre limit, the railway arches in SE1.
Add those together and the same one bedroom flat that costs £420 in a purpose built block with a lift costs £850 on the third floor of a walk-up on a red route. Neither figure is wrong. They are different jobs wearing the same label, and a single published price for "one bedroom" would have to overcharge one of them.
What a bay suspension actually costs
Between £45 and £120 a day per bay, set by the borough rather than by us, usually with an admin fee on top. Westminster, Camden, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Southwark, Lambeth and Tower Hamlets each run their own application, their own rate and their own lead time, and all of them want several working days.
We apply on your behalf and pass the cost through at exactly what the council charged, as its own line in the quote. On a studio or a single item it is usually cheaper to carry thirty metres further. On a house move with a hundred and forty trips between the door and the van, it pays for itself before lunch.
One detail worth knowing: borough boundaries run through the middle of King's Cross, Fitzrovia and Aldgate, so we ask for the exact address rather than the postcode. An application to the wrong authority burns the whole lead time and leaves you with no bay on the morning.
Cost questions
How much does a man and van cost in Central London?
Between £90 for a single item and £2,000 for a three bedroom house, with most jobs falling between £420 and £1,400. A studio is £340 to £620, a one bedroom flat £420 to £850, a two bedroom flat £680 to £1,400. Every figure includes VAT, the crew, the van, the wrapping, the fuel and the Congestion Charge, and it is agreed as one fixed number before we start rather than run up on a meter.
Do you charge by the hour?
No. London removals firms mostly charge £95 to £150 an hour for two people and a Luton, with a two or three hour minimum. We quote the job instead. The reason is that the things which make a Central London move run long, the shared goods lift, the traffic on Euston Road, the porter at lunch, are things you did not choose and cannot control, and an hourly rate hands you the bill for all of them.
Is the Congestion Charge included in the price?
Yes, and so is ULEZ. The Congestion Charge rose to £18 a day in January 2026 and ULEZ is £12.50, and nearly every Central London job crosses one or both. Both sit inside the figure we quote you. A price that does not mention them is a price that will grow by thirty pounds.
What is not included?
Three things. Full packing, unless you book it alongside the move. Council bay suspensions, which cost £45 to £120 a day and are passed on at exactly what the borough charged, shown as their own line. Storage facility fees, which you pay the facility rather than us. Everything else, including stairs, waiting time and mileage, is inside the number.
Can the price change on the day?
Only if what we find is materially different from what was described: twice the volume, an extra floor, a second address nobody mentioned. If it matches the description, the figure holds, and that includes when the job runs longer than we expected. That is what fixed price means and it is the reason we ask about the floor and the parking so carefully before quoting.
Why are your prices higher than a quote I have seen for £250?
Check what the £250 covers. The usual answer is two hours minimum with the clock starting when the van arrives, the Congestion Charge added afterwards, a stairs surcharge, and a per mile figure. On a one bedroom flat with two flights of stairs, that quote finishes above ours. Ask any cheaper quote for the total including VAT, the Congestion Charge, waiting time and stairs, and compare that number instead.
How do I get an exact figure rather than a range?
Send us both addresses, the floor at each end, whether there is a lift, and a rough idea of the volume. That is enough for almost any job and it takes two minutes. We come back the same day, usually within a couple of hours, with one number.
Do you take a deposit?
For larger moves and for any job needing a bay suspension, yes, because the council takes the suspension money in advance and does not refund it once granted. For a small job usually not. Whatever applies is written into the quote rather than raised afterwards.
Want the reasoning rather than the numbers? How we work a price out covers what is always included and what is quoted separately. Or find your area for the parking and access detail where you actually live.
Get your exact figure
Send both addresses, the floor at each end and whether there is a lift. We come back the same day with one number.
Prefer to email? quotes@manandvancentrallondon.co.uk. We answer monday to sunday, 7am to 9pm.