Hong Kong is a free port, so the customs side of your move is the simplest of any destination we serve. Almost all the difficulty is in the last hundred metres: a lift that will not take a sofa, a lane a lorry cannot enter, a building that permits moves for three hours on a Tuesday.
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Hong Kong charges no duty on household goods and no import tax on them either. There is no relief to claim because there is nothing to be relieved of, which removes at a stroke the paperwork that dominates a move to Australia, Canada or the United States. Entry is a formality and clearance is usually a matter of days.
What replaces it is access. Flats are small, corridors are narrow, older buildings have lifts that will not take a three-seat sofa, and some addresses on the Peak, in Sai Kung and on the outlying islands cannot be reached by a full-size vehicle at all. This is why our survey asks about your lift dimensions before it asks about your furniture.
The Island · The harbour · Lantau
Volume decides it first, urgency second. We recommend one after your survey and show you the alternative price rather than quietly choosing the bigger box.
Under roughly 300 cu ft · groupage or LCL
You pay for the space you occupy in a container shared with others bound for Hong Kong. The most common choice on this route, because flats are small and a great many people ship personal effects into part-furnished accommodation.
Roughly 1,000 cu ft · one to two bedrooms
Yours alone, sailing when it is loaded. Comfortably enough for most Hong Kong flats, and it avoids waiting for a consolidation to fill.
Roughly 2,200 cu ft · three to five bedrooms
Used mainly for village houses in the New Territories, houses on the Peak and larger properties in Discovery Bay. Rarely the right answer for an apartment, whatever the square footage suggests.
Priced by weight · 4–7 days
Heavily used here. People commonly arrive weeks before the container to start a role, and a small air shipment of work equipment, documents and clothes covers the gap.
Most movers make you fill in a form before they will discuss money. Here is the shape of it up front — and, unlike most published prices in this trade, an honest account of what these figures do and do not cover.
| Size of move | Shipping, port to port | Packing and UK collection |
|---|---|---|
| Small move, shared containerA flat, a student move, part of a house | £865–£1,769 | Quoted per move |
| 20ft containerTypically a three-bedroom house | £3,015–£4,455 | About £2,010 |
| 40ft containerFour bedrooms and upwards | £5,829–£6,728 | About £2,510 |
The middle column is the shipping, and only the shipping. It is the cost of moving the container from a UK port to the destination port. The third column adds packing to export standard and collection from your home. Still to come on top of both: customs clearance at each end, quarantine or biosecurity inspection where the destination requires it, insurance, destination charges and delivery into your new home. Those are quoted per shipment, and every one of them is explained with published figures on what your quote doesn’t include.
We split it out this way because a shipping figure presented as the price of a move is how an advertised number ends up a couple of thousand pounds below what anybody actually pays. Ranges are indicative, move with sailing rates and the season, and depend on your actual packed volume — which is why we survey before we quote. The same figures for every destination, with a worked example, are on what an international move costs.
Door to door, from UK collection to delivery at your Hong Kong address. Planning figures rather than guarantees, though clearance here is quicker than almost anywhere we ship.
| Destination | Shared container | Sole-use container |
|---|---|---|
| Hong Kong IslandCentral, Mid-Levels, Happy Valley, Southside | 8–11 weeks | 7–9 weeks |
| KowloonTsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon Tong, Ho Man Tin | 8–11 weeks | 7–9 weeks |
| New TerritoriesSha Tin, Sai Kung, Clearwater Bay, Tai Po | 8–11 weeks | 7–9 weeks |
| Outlying islandsDiscovery Bay, Lantau, Lamma | 9–12 weeks | 8–10 weeks |
| Air freightTerritory-wide | 4 | & |
The sea leg through Suez is around five weeks and clearance takes days rather than weeks. The variation in the table is access rather than distance: the outlying islands need a ferry or barge and a second handling, which adds time and cost at the very end of the journey.
Quoted as one price, delivered as one service. Anything not on this list is named in your quotation rather than discovered later.
There is no customs section on this page because there is very little customs. Instead, here is the part of a Hong Kong move that actually goes wrong, and what we do about it.
Every item on this list is solvable if it is known about beforehand and expensive if it is discovered on delivery day. Our survey is built around finding these out in advance.
Building rules vary enormously and change with management companies. We confirm yours before the container sails and put the delivery plan in writing.
One territory, but very different deliveries. What changes between these is access rather than distance — and access is what a Hong Kong quotation is really pricing.
Central, Mid-Levels, Southside
Dense, vertical and steep. Mid-Levels deliveries frequently need a shuttle from the nearest road a lorry can reach, and older blocks along the slopes often have no service lift at all.
Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon Tong, Ho Man Tin
Flatter and generally easier for vehicle access than the Island, with a mixture of older walk-ups and modern towers. Kowloon Tong houses are among the few genuinely spacious addresses on this side.
Sha Tin, Tai Po, Sai Kung, Clearwater Bay
Where the space is. Village houses offer three floors and a roof, at the cost of narrow lanes, restricted vehicle access and stairs instead of lifts. Popular with families for exactly that trade.
Discovery Bay, Tung Chung, Mui Wo
Discovery Bay has no private cars, so deliveries transfer to permitted vehicles or arrive by ferry. It works well when planned and badly when assumed. Allow the extra days.
Lamma, Cheung Chau, Peng Chau
No vehicles at all on Lamma and Cheung Chau. Goods move by ferry or barge and then by trolley or village vehicle. Entirely feasible, and it needs to be in the plan from the beginning.
Macau, Shenzhen, mainland China, Taiwan
Hong Kong is our hub for the region, with onward shipping into mainland China, Macau and Taiwan. Mainland import rules are considerably stricter than Hong Kong’s — tell us the destination and we will confirm what applies.
Working backwards from your flight.
Book the survey and confirm the quotation. Get your building’s lift dimensions and moving rules from the management office.
Decide what travels. This is the point to be honest about what will fit the flat.
We complete your valued inventory and confirm the delivery plan, including any hoist or shuttle. Separate air freight and documents.
We pack, inventory and load over one to two days, protecting against humidity in transit.
We clear the entry, book the lift or the hoist, and deliver within your building’s permitted window.
Volume first, then access, and access matters more here than anywhere else we ship. A Discovery Bay delivery by ferry or a Mid-Levels hoist costs materially more than a modern Kowloon tower with a service lift. Use the volume estimator on our home page for scale, then let us survey.
On household goods, no. Hong Kong is a free port and duty applies only to liquor, tobacco, hydrocarbon oils and methyl alcohol. It is the simplest customs position of any destination we serve.
We measure. At survey we ask for your building’s lift internal dimensions and door width, the staircase turns, and the flat’s door widths. Anything that will not go up the lift is either hoisted, dismantled or left behind, and we tell you which before you ship it.
Lifting items up the outside of the building by rope or crane and in through a window or balcony. It is routine in Hong Kong for sofas, beds and large cabinets in buildings without a service lift. It needs permission, insurance and a clear approach, all of which we arrange.
Mechanically yes — Hong Kong drives on the left. Financially, think carefully: first registration tax is charged at a high percentage of assessed value, and parking is scarce and expensive. We will give you the figures rather than a shrug.
Between May and October the port can suspend operations for a day or more at a time, and deliveries stop when a signal is raised. It rarely changes a move by more than a few days, but it is worth knowing if your dates are tight.
Yes, and onward into mainland China and the region. Returning to Britain after twelve consecutive months abroad may qualify you for Transfer of Residence relief, applied for before your goods arrive.
Tell us where you're heading and roughly when. A consultant will come back within one working day to arrange a survey.