Residential moving
Apartment Movers in Dubai
An apartment move is decided by the building, not the furniture. Whether there is a service lift, whether it can be booked, how far the truck can get from the door, and whether management will let the crew start at all — that is what separates a four-hour job from a nine-hour one.
-
The lift slot is booked
We contact building management, book the service lift and confirm the window before the day. An unbooked lift is the single most common reason an apartment move overruns.
-
Walk-ups quoted honestly
If your building has no lift, we say what the stair carry adds when we quote — not when the crew is standing in the stairwell.
-
Doors and lift cars protected
Blankets on the lift walls and door frames. Damage to shared areas comes out of your deposit, not ours, which is why we take it seriously.
-
Small moves taken seriously
A studio is a real booking, not a job we fit in around bigger ones.
Ask five people in Dubai what made their last flat move painful and none of them will say the furniture. They will say the lift was out, or management would not let the truck park, or the permit had not come through and the crew waited two hours in the loading bay.
Apartment moving is a building-access problem wearing a furniture-removal costume. So the first thing we ask is not what you own — it is which tower, which floor, and whether there is a service lift.
Studio to four-bedroom
A studio and a four-bedroom apartment are the same category on a website and completely different jobs in practice. A studio is two to four hours with a working lift, one crew, one truck run, and it is the size where the AED 500-ish starting figure is genuinely realistic. A four-bedroom apartment on the twenty-eighth floor is a house move with a lift dependency, and pretending otherwise in a quote helps nobody.
In between, the useful rule of thumb is that each additional bedroom adds roughly half a truck and a couple of hours, and that the kitchen counts as a bedroom for planning purposes because of how long it takes to pack properly.
Lifts, stairs and the buildings without either
Towers with a booked service lift are the straightforward case. The two that need thinking about are walk-ups and long carries.
Walk-ups are common in the older eastern communities — the four-storey blocks in International City, much of Al Qusais, and parts of Muhaisnah and Deira. Everything is carried by hand. That is normal work for us and we do a lot of it; it simply needs to be priced as what it is, which is more crew and more hours.
Long carries are the quieter one. Some buildings will not let a truck near the residential entrance at all, so everything goes from a loading bay or the street. Sixty metres of carry, repeated for every carton, adds more time than a flight of stairs does. It is worth telling us at the quote stage.
The permit, and who chases it
Most managed buildings in Dubai want a move-in or move-out permit, and a good number will not release the service lift without one. It usually needs the tenancy contract, the mover’s trade licence, and sometimes a refundable deposit against damage to shared areas.
We handle that side at both addresses. Tell us the two buildings when you book and we will find out what each of them wants, send our documents across, and confirm the lift window back to you in writing before the day.
Moving out of a flat and into a house
Common enough in Dubai that it is worth its own note. The outbound half runs as described here; the inbound half is on the house moving page, and if it is a villa, villa moving. One crew does both ends on the same day.
What's included
- Service-lift booking and move permit at both buildings
- All packing materials, included in the quoted price
- Packing of the whole flat, or only the rooms you want packed
- Bed, wardrobe and dining-table dismantling and reassembly
- Protection for lift interiors, door frames and corridor walls
- Wall-mounted TV removal and remounting where the bracket allows
- Loading, transport, unloading and placement by room
- Carton collection once you have unpacked
What costs extra
If any of these apply to your move they will be on your written quote before you agree to anything — never added on the day.
- Building deposits, if your tower asks for a refundable one — that is between you and management
- Split air-conditioning units, water heaters and built-in appliances
- Fitted wardrobes and any joinery fixed to the wall
- Out-of-hours slots, if your building only permits moves outside working hours — possible, but it changes the price
Properties we handle
- Studio
- Two to four hours with a working lift. This is the size where "from AED 500" is a realistic starting figure.
- One bedroom
- Half a day including packing. The most common apartment move in Dubai by a distance.
- Two bedroom
- Most of a day. Worth packing the kitchen the evening before if you can.
- Three bedroom
- A full day, and the lift booking stops being optional — three bedrooms is more lift trips than a building will tolerate unbooked.
- Four bedroom and penthouse
- Effectively a house move on an upper floor. Surveyed properly, quoted properly.
How it works
- 1 Photos or a video walk-through For a flat this is usually enough to quote accurately. No appointment needed.
- 2 We check both buildings Lift or stairs, floor, truck access, and what management requires. This is the question we ask that most movers do not.
- 3 Written quote With the stair or long-carry element stated separately if there is one.
- 4 Lift and permit booked Confirmed in writing with both buildings before the day.
- 5 Move day Pack, dismantle, protect the shared areas, load, move, unload, rebuild.
- 6 Walk-through Both flats checked before the crew stands down.
Where we do this in Dubai
Access and permit rules differ by community. These pages cover what applies where.
- Al Rashidiya
- Muhaisnah
- Mirdif
- Al Warqa
- Dubai Silicon Oasis
- International City
- Al Qusais
- Al Nahda
- Nad Al Hamar
- Al Twar
- Umm Ramool
- Al Garhoud
Frequently asked questions
Plenty of Dubai buildings do not, particularly the four- and five-storey walk-ups in International City, Al Qusais and parts of Muhaisnah. It is not a problem, but it is a real cost: everything is carried, the crew is larger, and the job takes longer. We ask which floor you are on before we quote precisely so that this is in the number from the start rather than added on the day.
We do. Give us the building name and management contact and we will request the slot, send them our trade licence and insurance documents, and confirm the window back to you. Some buildings insist the tenant makes the request personally, and where that is the case we will tell you exactly what to send and when.
Two to three working days is typical, though some of the larger managed towers want a week and most will not process anything on a Friday. End of month is worse everywhere, because every other tenant in the building is also moving.
Usually yes — a studio is the size of job most likely to fit into a day that is already partly booked. Call rather than message if it is urgent.
Yes, where the bracket is a standard one and it comes off without cutting into the wall. We will remount it at the new flat if there is an existing bracket or fixing point. Drilling fresh holes in a rented wall is your landlord's conversation, not ours, so we will ask before doing it.
Other things we move
House Moving
Whole-house moves across Dubai, packed room by room and rebuilt the same day. See what it includes
Villa Moving
Large-volume villa moves with outdoor furniture, oversized pieces and community access handled. See what it includes
Office Moving
Office relocations run out of hours, labelled by seat, with IT and documents handled in order. See what it includes
Warehouse Moving
Warehouse and stockroom relocations with the inventory counted out and counted back in. See what it includesNeed apartment moving in Dubai?
Tell us where you are moving from, where you are moving to, and what you need help with. We will survey it properly and come back with one fixed written price.