Best Time to Move House in the UK
Data from 700,000+ moves reveals the optimal day, month, and season. Get the best rates, easiest booking, and a stress-free experience.
Quick Answer: The Best Times to Move
Best Day of the Week to Move
The day you choose can affect your moving costs by up to 55%. Here's what the data shows:
Sunday
£717
average move cost
Friday
£950
average move cost
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Month by month: when demand actually peaks
Removals demand in the UK is seasonal in a way most people underestimate. Summer is the busy season because families move around the school year, and August is the single hardest month to book a good crew at short notice. That pressure does not only show up in price — it shows up in availability, which is what actually ruins a moving day. The firm you wanted is booked, so you take the one who answers, and you find out why they were free.
Winter is the mirror image. January and February are quiet, crews have slots, and you have leverage over both the date and the time of day. The trade-off is real: fewer daylight hours, worse weather for carrying furniture across an open driveway, and a higher chance of a completion slipping because everyone in the chain is working around holidays. If your move is flexible and you care mostly about cost and crew quality, the quiet months win comfortably.
- June to September — The peak. Book several weeks out, especially for a Friday or the end of a month.
- Late December to February — The quietest stretch. Best availability and the easiest slots to negotiate.
- End of any month — Tenancy turnover concentrates here regardless of season. The last Friday of a month is the worst single day to leave to chance.
- Bank holiday weekends — Deceptive. The Monday is quiet on the roads, but crews book up early and some buildings restrict access.
- School holidays — Family moves cluster here. If you have no children in school, deliberately avoiding these weeks is free money.
If you are buying: the completion day problem
A rental move has a date you control. A purchase does not — completion happens when the money moves, and the money moves when the slowest party in the chain is ready. That is why so many buyers end up loading a van at four in the afternoon: keys are typically released once funds clear, and on a long chain that can be the early afternoon rather than the morning.
The practical answer is to book the crew for the day but structure it in two halves. Load in the morning from the property you are leaving, which you can usually do before completion, then wait for the keys and unload. It costs you nothing extra on an hourly rate compared with sitting idle, and it means the van is packed and ready the moment the call comes rather than starting from scratch at 3pm with the light going.
- Avoid Friday completions if you can — It is the most popular day, so it is the most congested day in the chain — and if something fails, you lose the whole weekend.
- Ask your solicitor for a realistic key time — Not the earliest possible one. Plan the day around the realistic answer.
- Book the crew for the day, not the hour — A fixed two-hour window on a completion day is optimism, not a plan.
- Have a fallback for the load — Know where the van can legally sit for two hours if keys are late.
What actually changes what you pay
Date is one lever and it is not the biggest. On an hourly move the two things that move the total most are how much of the packing is done before the crew arrives, and how far the van has to park from the door at each end. A well-packed two-bed flat with parking outside can be finished in the time it takes to half-load a badly packed one where the crew is carrying forty metres each way.
That is worth knowing because it is the part you control. You cannot make August quiet, but you can seal and label every box the night before, empty the wardrobes, dismantle the bed, and sort the parking. Those four things routinely take an hour or more off a job on both ends.
- Pack before the crew arrives — The clock starts when they do. Packing on their time is the most expensive packing there is.
- Sort parking at both ends — A suspended bay costs a fee and several working days' notice; a long carry costs you every trip.
- Dismantle what you can — Beds and flat-pack units, taken apart in advance, load faster and travel better.
- Be honest about volume — An undersized van means two trips, which costs far more than the bigger van would have.
- Move mid-month and mid-week — The cheapest slot in any month is a mid-month Tuesday or Wednesday.