How much does a move cost: 2026 prices, from a studio apartment to a family home

The short answer

A move in Italy costs on average €600-900 for a two-room apartment. Within a city, a studio or two-room apartment runs €350-850, a 100 m² home €750-1,800. The price is driven by the cubic meters to load, the distance, floors without an elevator and extras such as dismantling and packing.

The figures come from three public comparison sites, read on 25 September 2026: Cronoshare (page updated January 2026), Traslocami (table revised February 2026) and Switcho. They're market averages, not price lists: they tell you whether the quote in your hand is in the normal range.

Smoves was born in Milan in 2026, collects furniture and boxes from homes between Como and Piacenza, and customers rate it 4.4 out of 5 on Trustpilot. We do moves too, so me writing about moving prices is a bit like asking the pizza chef where to get pizza. To make up for it, there isn't a single figure of ours in here: only the market's, each with its link.

How much it costs to move an apartment, home by home

Traslocami's table splits prices into three columns: a move within the city with transport only, a full move within the city (the "turnkey" kind) and a long-distance move. Here are the figures as published. If your home fits no row, it's usually because there's a second home in the cellar.

The price is set in cubic meters, even if nobody asks you to measure

Movers think in cubic meters: how much space your things will take up in the truck. According to Cronoshare volume costs €30-50 per cubic meter, and one room is usually worth 5-10 m³. I only found out my real volume when I saw the van full, which is the worst possible moment to find out.

The back-of-envelope sum goes like this: a two-room apartment at 14-20 m³ times €30-50 per cubic meter gives €420-1,000. That's our own multiplication on the source's figures, and it matches the table above. Then there's always grandma's wardrobe: two meters of solid walnut nobody has opened in years, which weighs more on the quote than the fridge.

How much a full move costs, and what "full" means

In the table, a full move costs noticeably more: on the first row, €550-850 instead of €350-550. The difference is the work you don't see: packing, dismantling, protecting, reassembling. Quotes call it "turnkey"; real life calls it "I never have to touch packing tape again".

Transport only is exactly what it says: load, drive, unload. You close the boxes, you take the furniture apart, and you hunt for the wardrobe's Allen key at eleven at night. It makes sense when you have time and few fragile things. If you want to know how it works with us, moving in Milan with Smoves is done on a free quote: our crew collects, dismantles and transports.

Furniture moving costs: dismantling, packing and stairs without an elevator

These are the items that turn a €600 quote into a €900 one. Stairs without an elevator are the only gym where you pay while other people work out. Here are the items with the average figures from both sources.

How much a move costs in Milan

In Milan the average asking price is €700-1,000, and a move within the city runs from €500 to €2,000, according to Cronoshare's Milan page (updated January 2026). The range is wide because it covers both the studio in Città Studi and the four-room apartment on the fifth floor off a balcony walkway.

Three things weigh more here than elsewhere. If the truck takes up the street you need a public land occupation permit, which the same source puts at €20-150, more in the restricted traffic zones, with no-parking signs to put up days ahead. It's the only case in Milan where you get to book a parking space.

Then the season: in spring, summer and September prices can rise by up to 20%, and weekends and holidays cost more than weekdays. September in Milan is when everyone moves, including the people who swore in July they'd never do it again. Finally, courtyards and narrow doorways: the truck can't always pull up outside, and every extra meter of trolley is time someone pays for.

The moving quote: how to read it before you sign

A serious quote comes after a survey, or at least after a detailed list of what's being moved. One done over the phone in two minutes tends to grow on moving day, along with the list of things you didn't know you owned.

• The estimated volume in cubic meters, in writing.

• Floors, elevator and the distance from the truck to the door: if they're missing, they'll be added later.

• What's included among dismantling, reassembly and packing, item by item.

• Parking and public land permits: who applies and who pays.

• The date, and what happens if it has to move.

• Whether the price includes VAT or not.

DIY moving: how much it costs to rent a van

Doing it yourself is the cheapest route when the distance is short and someone is helping. Traslocami estimates €80-140 for a day with a van of about 10 m³, and a total of around €200 for a short-distance move. Your back isn't in the bill, but it makes itself felt anyway.

The hourly rates you can read today, the kilometers that pile on and what you need to drive (license, age, credit card) are all laid out in the post on how much it costs to rent a van for a move. Read it before promising pizza to two friends in exchange for a Saturday.

How to move on a budget: seven ways that actually work

A cheap move doesn't exist; a less expensive one does. These are the levers the sources measure, ordered by how much they save you.

1. Take less: cutting the volume by 20% is worth €150-250 on the quote, according to Traslocami. This is the moment to ask whether grandma's wardrobe is really coming to the new place.

2. Pack yourself: the same source estimates a quote 20-30% lower.

3. Move on a Tuesday or Wednesday, mid-month: many movers give a 10-15% discount.

4. Book 4-6 weeks ahead. Under 10 days you risk a 15-20% surcharge.

5. If your dates are flexible, ask for groupage, a load shared with other moves heading the same way: it can cost 25-40% less.

6. Avoid September and weekends, when prices in Milan go up.

7. If the new place isn't ready, don't pay for a truck standing still: your things can wait in storage.

If the dates don't match, your things can wait in storage

The two dates almost never match: the old lease ends on the 30th, the new keys arrive on the 15th of the following month. Meanwhile your things have to go somewhere, and your cousin's sofa has its limits. That's what storage during a move in Milan is for: we collect from your home, keep everything in the warehouse and bring it back when the new place is ready.

What it costs to keep furniture parked for a few months, and what drives the price, is in the post on furniture storage costs. If you're still working out where to start, dates and checklists are in the guide on how to organize a move.

What we see when we turn up to load

The volume on paper and the real one are never the same number, and the gap always runs the same way. Nobody has ever declared more stuff than they had: people remember the bookcases, never the suitcase of winter clothes on top of the wardrobe. In June 2026 we collected over 200 items from students, mostly around Bocconi: enough to know that a room is always fuller than it looks.

It isn't bad faith: household things only become visible once you pull them out of the cabinets. It holds for any mover: before the quote, open the cellar and the storage closet too, and declare grandma's wardrobe instead of hoping nobody notices.

If yours is a small move, one room or a studio, there's the page on small moves in Milan. For a whole apartment, the details are on the page about moving companies in Milan.