renwd research · October 2026
Moving second-hand furniture in London: 2026 report
Good furniture is going unsold in London. Not because nobody wants it, but because getting it home costs more than the furniture.
Data collected 12–23 September 2026 · Prices checked October 2026
Summary
Moving one piece of furniture across London costs between about £20 and £140 in 2026. In our sample, about 6 in 10 sofa listings were priced at or below what a man and van charges to move them, and since Zipcar closed at the end of 2025, buyers without a car say they have stopped looking.
Key findings
London sofa listings we sampled were priced at or below what a man and van charges to move them.
of inner-London households have no car. In outer London it's 33% (TfL, 2024).
is as far as most buyers say they'll search, because of the cost of collection.
is the typical man-and-van quote for a single item, driven by two-hour minimums.
1. What it costs to move one item
Typical price ranges for a single item inside London. The cheapest option, Uber XL, is a passenger service: drivers can refuse furniture and nobody helps carry it.
| Option | Typical cost | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Uber XL | About £7 minimum; about £21 for a typical item trip | Passenger service: drivers can refuse furniture; no help lifting |
| AnyVan (local) | £27–£49 | Surcharges can be added after the quote |
| Shiply | £34–£88 plus booking fee | Bids drift; cheap bids can mean waiting days |
| Airtasker | £40–£120 (median about £90) | Insurance varies by tasker |
| Man and van | £100–£140 for a sofa; about £100 median | Usually a two-hour minimum |
| Self-drive van hire | £65–£109 a day | Deposit, licence, day rates, you do the lifting |
| Council bulky collection | £30–£62 | Disposal only; about two weeks' wait |
Sources: renwd research across Reddit, Mumsnet, Trustpilot, provider pricing pages and 105 live Facebook Marketplace listings (September 2026). Uber XL minimum from public fare estimators (October 2026).
Real quotes people were given: £60 to move a chest of drawers one mile, £115 for a bed frame 15 minutes away and £140 for a sofa from Reading.
2. Furniture worth less than the delivery
We sampled 105 live London listings on Facebook Marketplace. Of the 53 sofa listings, 24 were free.
About 6 in 10 genuine sofa listings were priced at or below what a man and van charges to move them. A buyer who works that out usually walks away. The most common version of the comment we found: "for a £20 desk I'll just buy new from IKEA."
3. Most Londoners can't collect
Zipcar stopped taking bookings on 31 December 2025. It had more than 550,000 London members and vans at around £9–£15 an hour. The replacements mostly charge by the day, ask for a £200–£250 deposit and have fewer locations.
Three of r/london's most-upvoted threads on this topic blame the closure directly. In comments about getting furniture home, the lack of a vehicle carried 61% of all upvotes, more than any other barrier.
4. Sellers don't trust couriers, and with reason
Scammers posing as couriers ask sellers to pay a fake "insurance fee", often around £47. One Mumsnet thread alone holds 16 reports. The result: when a buyer in one thread suggested a genuine courier, 7 of 8 replies called it a scam.
Sellers now insist on "cash on collection only", and "free delivery, cash on delivery" has become a warning sign on Marketplace, because that's the line dropship spam uses.
5. The barriers, ranked
Ranked by how strongly the comments and listings support each one.
- The price floor is wrong for cheap items. Two-hour minimums put a single desk at around £100.
- No vehicle, and the cheap hourly option has gone.
- Lifting. People can't carry big items alone; a second person adds about £10–£20 an hour, and ride-hail drivers don't help.
- Distrust of couriers, driven by the insurance-fee scam.
- Speed. Listings go to whoever collects first, so sellers won't hold items for slow, cheap couriers.
- Search radius collapses to 10–20 miles.
- Prices aren't certain. Courier-marketplace bids can drift, and some customers report charges added after the quote. 6% of AnyVan's 204,000 Trustpilot reviews are one-star (September 2026).
- Getting rid of things is hard too. Council collections cost £30–£62 and take about two weeks; charities turn down painted or dated pieces. One seller paid £120 to dispose of a £400 bed frame.
6. How Londoners get round it today
In rough order of how often they come up.
- The seller delivers, usually for £10–£30.
- Courier marketplaces such as Shiply or AnyVan.
- A man and van.
- Courier vans from minicab firms.
- Uber XL for flat-pack and small items, after messaging the driver first.
- Cargo bikes, for small items in central London.
- Charity collection (British Heart Foundation, Emmaus).
- A friend with a car.
7. Why it matters
of UK consumers buy pre-loved goods at least monthly, the highest of any market eBay surveyed (eBay Recommerce Report, 2025).
of furniture go through UK bulky waste collections each year. WRAP estimates about half could be reused.
London households have no car, the people for whom a cheap way to collect matters most (TfL, 2024).
Method
- Comments: 269 comments coded by theme across 41 public threads on Reddit (r/london, r/AskUK, r/CasualUK), Mumsnet, eBay Community, Trustpilot and TikTok, dated 2014 to September 2026. Upvotes were used to weight how strongly each barrier is felt.
- Listings: 105 live London Facebook Marketplace listings, sampled 12–23 September 2026, including 53 sofas.
- Prices: provider pricing pages and quotes posted publicly, September 2026; Uber XL fares from public fare estimators, October 2026.
- Public data: TfL Travel in London 2024, London Assembly, eBay Recommerce Report 2025, WRAP.
Limits: these are small samples from public conversations, so the figures show direction rather than precise statistics. Forum users are not a representative sample of all Londoners.
Sources
- TfL: Travel in London 2024, car ownership trends
- London Assembly: the demise of Zipcar
- eBay: UK leads global shift to pre-loved shopping
- WRAP: re-use potential of household bulky items
- r/london: Has Zipcar going bust killed the second-hand market?
- Mumsnet: Beware FB Marketplace courier scam
- Trustpilot: AnyVan reviews
Use this research
You're welcome to quote and chart these figures with a link back to this page.
Journalists and researchers: email hello@renwd.co for the underlying tables.
Questions about the findings
How much does it cost to move one piece of furniture in London?
Between about £20 and £140 in 2026, depending on the option. A man and van is typically around £100 for one item because of two-hour minimums. AnyVan local jobs are often £27–£49 and Shiply £34–£88 plus a booking fee.
Why is second-hand furniture hard to sell in London?
Most buyers have no car, and moving one item often costs more than the item. In our sample, about 6 in 10 sofa listings were priced at or below the cost of a man and van, and buyers limit their search to 10–20 miles.
Did Zipcar closing affect second-hand furniture sales?
Londoners say it did. Zipcar stopped taking bookings on 31 December 2025, and three of r/london's most-upvoted threads on the subject blame its closure for buyers giving up on second-hand furniture.
How was this research done?
renwd coded 269 comments across 41 public threads (Reddit, Mumsnet, eBay Community, Trustpilot, TikTok) and sampled 105 live London Facebook Marketplace listings between 12 and 23 September 2026, alongside public data from TfL, WRAP and eBay.
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