Madrid · practical guide
Moving to Madrid: what the move itself costs
Plenty of pages will tell you about rent and neighbourhoods. This one is about the boring part nobody prices until the week before: getting your things from one flat to the other.
The numbers
A room in a shared flat — €100 to €160
A bed, a wardrobe taken apart, a desk and eight or ten boxes. The most common move in this city by a distance, and the one big firms quote badly because it is too small to interest them.
A one or two bedroom flat — €180 to €420
The spread is real and it is not about kilometres. A ground floor with a loading bay outside and a fourth floor with no lift are different jobs, even if they are four streets apart.
One big thing — from €30
A sofa bought on Wallapop, a fridge, a mattress from someone leaving the country. Half of what I do in a week.
The two things that catch people out
The lift, or the lack of one
Madrid has a lot of handsome old buildings with narrow staircases and no lift, especially in the centre. It is the single biggest reason a price changes on the day. Say the floor when you ask for a quote and it will not happen to you.
The comparison sites
Fill in one form and up to four companies buy your phone number and start calling. It is free for you and it is why the calls do not stop. If you would rather deal with one person, write to one person.
Questions people ask
What does it cost to move flat within Madrid?
A room between shared flats is usually €100–160. A one or two bedroom flat is €180–420. A single large item across the city starts at €30. The range is wide because floors, lifts and parking change the job far more than distance does.
What makes the price go up?
Stairs, mostly. A fourth floor with no lift can add an hour of carrying to a job that was quoted for twenty minutes. After that: narrow streets where the van cannot stop near the door, and Madrid Central, which restricts vehicles in the middle of the city and needs planning rather than luck.
What is Madrid Central and does it affect my move?
It is the low emission zone covering the centre of the city — Sol, Malasaña, Lavapiés, La Latina, Chueca and the streets around them. Vehicles need authorisation to enter. For a move it means the day and the time slot have to be arranged in advance instead of turning up. It is normal and manageable, but not something to discover on the morning.
Do I need to be there on the day?
Someone does, to open the door and say where things go. It does not have to be you, but whoever it is should have the address, the floor and my number, and should know what has been agreed.
How far in advance should I book?
For a normal week, two or three days. For the end of a month, the start of September or the first days of July, more — those are when half of Madrid changes flat and every van in the city is busy.
When you have a date
Send me a photo of the room and tell me the two addresses and the floors. You get a fixed price back, in writing, and it does not move afterwards. I'm Víctor, I work on my own out of Usera, and I have been doing this for eleven years.