Leaving London
The same question, pointed outwards
A posting abroad has the same arithmetic as a posting into London, with one difference: getting it wrong costs considerably more. Everything shipped is also everything that has to come back.
Store the half you are not bringing at home, not at the far end. It is the clearest saving on any assignment move.
Four horizon-led corridors
France, where the posting is short enough that half a household is usually the honest answer. Spain, where the flat at the far end overrides the horizon entirely — a small lift decides what goes. Italy, where a restricted city centre decides it instead. Portugal, where the length of the drive makes a second trip the expensive option, so the first one has to be right.
Everything shipped comes back
On a domestic move the return journey is hypothetical. On an assignment abroad it is on the contract, which makes the shipment size a decision about two moves rather than one.
So the sensible shipment is the one that suits the posting: roughly half a household where accommodation is unfurnished, and personal effects only where it is furnished. What stays behind stays at the home end.
Ask about the accommodation first
Most assignment housing is furnished to some degree and a good deal of it is furnished completely. A shipment planned before anybody has seen the property is a shipment planned on assumption.
Photographs and an inventory of what is already there take one email to request and remove more volume from a quotation than any other single step.
Then the building, which sometimes overrules everything
On several of these routes the apartment is the binding constraint rather than the horizon. Lift cars, lift door openings and stairwell widths turn down ordinary British furniture regularly.
Those measurements are obtainable from a landlord or an agent in a single message, and they are worth having before a container is booked rather than after.
And the paperwork that gates it
We prepare everything derived from the inventory: the described list, the export declaration, the import entry and the relief claim. The documents attached to you as a person cannot be obtained on your behalf, and on several of these corridors they gate the clearance entirely.
Leaving London
Questions about moving abroad
- How much should we ship for an assignment abroad?
- Roughly half a household on a defined posting, and considerably less into furnished accommodation. Everything shipped is also everything that has to come back, which is the arithmetic people skip.
- Where should the rest be stored?
- At the home end, where it is going back to anyway. Shipping it to the far end and then paying to store it there is the expensive inversion, and it happens constantly.
- What should we ask about the accommodation?
- Whether it is furnished, for photographs, and for an inventory of what is already in it. Those three settle the shipment size faster than any conversation about volume.
- Which countries do you cover?
- France, Italy, Spain and Portugal, all by road. Those four and no others — we run no sea or air freight and refer anything outside them on.
- Does residency affect the timing?
- On several of these corridors, yes — goods clear against a residence permit and a container arriving ahead of it waits at your cost. Check whether an employer package covers storage and demurrage at destination, because many do not.
- Do you advise on visas or tax?
- No. Nothing on this site is immigration, tax or legal advice. The country pages name which documents gate the shipping and leave the rest to people qualified to answer it.
Where is it going, and for how long?
Both addresses, roughly what is going, and how long the posting runs. That last answer sizes the shipment more than anything else.