Villa Moving in Geneva

Why a villa is quoted after a visit and not over the phone

For a flat, room count predicts volume reasonably well. For a villa it predicts badly — and the error always runs the same way: real volume exceeds the estimate.

Three spaces explain that gap and they are invisible in a description. The garage first, which rarely holds just a car: tools, bicycles, winter tyres, out-of-season garden furniture, DIY materials. The cellar and loft next, where years of belongings accumulate until the moment of leaving. And the outbuildings: garden shed, pool house, outdoor laundry, workshop.

On top of that comes a category of furniture that does not exist in flats. A dining table for ten will not pass through a standard doorway without dismantling. A billiard table, a piano, a solid antique wardrobe, a large mirror, a glass chandelier: these need specific packing and sometimes two extra people.

Our position is simple: we would rather spend half an hour visiting and commit to a figure than quote low over the phone and revise it on site. A visit also identifies what will not fit through, what must be dismantled and what is better disposed of than moved — three decisions that get expensive if they are taken on the day.

Garden, garage and outbuildings: a third of the volume

On the Geneva villas we move, exterior spaces and annexes regularly account for a quarter to a third of total volume. It is the item owners themselves underestimate most.

Garden furniture is bulky and fragile at the same time: a toughened glass table, woven resin chairs that deform under an over-tightened strap, a cantilever parasol with a sixty-kilo base, a gas barbecue whose cylinder cannot travel in a closed lorry without precautions. Each of those needs its own handling.

Tools and garden equipment raise a different question: products. Mower fuel, chain oil, paints, solvents, weedkillers, pool chemicals. These containers do not travel with furniture and some cannot travel at all. We identify them during the visit and tell you which must be emptied, used up or taken to a collection point — this is not a constraint we invent.

Potted plants, finally, are a case nobody raises before the day itself. A large terracotta pot with an olive tree weighs more than a wardrobe and breaks more easily. We do move them, but we ask to discuss it when quoting, because a summer move with twenty pots in full sun is an operation in its own right.

Valuables: piano, artwork, wine cellar, safe

The 'piano or valuable item' option takes our 4-room villa example to CHF 3'000. It covers reinforced packing, the right equipment and a large enough team — not a specific insurance guarantee, and that distinction matters.

An upright piano moves with a minimum of three people and a proper trolley; a grand piano is partly dismantled, legs and lyre removed, and travels on its side in a rigid cover. In both cases we recommend tuning after installation, because a piano goes out of tune in transit whatever the care taken — that is physics, not mishandling.

Artwork and collectors' items need a crate or bespoke packing, and above all a prior declaration. We say this plainly: standard professional liability insurance does not cover the value of an undeclared work. If you are moving pieces of significant value, arranging specific cover is a decision to take beforehand, not after an incident.

A wine cellar is an interesting technical case. Wine travels badly upright and tolerates temperature swings poorly; bottles laid down in their original cases, transported away from heat and left to rest for several days before opening, is the sensible way to proceed. A safe, finally, is a question of weight and anchoring: above a certain weight it belongs with a specialist haulier, and we say so rather than improvising on a staircase.

Full packing: why it is the norm on a villa

Full packing by our teams takes our example to CHF 3'250. On a flat it is an option; on a villa it is the default choice for most of our clients, for an arithmetic reason.

Packing a 5-room villa with cellar, garage and garden is four to six days of work for one person. Very few families have that time alongside a sale, a school move and a check-out inspection. It is not a question of competence but of availability.

Professional packing also changes the unpacking, and that is the benefit you measure a week later. A box labelled by room and category, with fragile items packed with no void space, opens in the right order in the new house. A box filled in a hurry on the last evening ends up in the basement three months later, never opened.

We supply and take back all materials: boxes in several sizes, packing paper, mattress and sofa covers, protective blankets, stretch film, crockery crates. On a villa that item alone represents a significant volume of material — and it is one that cheaper quotes often leave outside the package without mentioning it.

Temporary storage: when the dates do not line up

The storage option takes our example to CHF 2'850. It answers an extremely common situation on villas: the handover date for the old house and the availability date for the new one do not fall on the same day.

Three cases come up constantly. A sale whose deed is signed before the new house is delivered. Works in the new villa taking a few weeks longer than planned — which is the rule rather than the exception. And a move abroad with an interval between the family leaving and the furniture being shipped.

The principle is to load once and unload once, storing in between, rather than multiplying handling. Every extra handling is a risk of damage and a cost. Furniture is covered, wrapped and stored in a closed space; an inventory is drawn up at loading so you know what is where.

One piece of advice we always give: use this step to sort. What goes into storage is what you will not see for weeks, so it is exactly the moment to decide what does not deserve storing. A cubic metre stored for six months costs more than its replacement value in a surprising number of cases.

Access and parking at Geneva villas

Contrary to expectation, a villa is not automatically easier to access than a flat. The constraints are different, not smaller.

The access lane is the first question. Many villas in Cologny, Vandœuvres, Chêne-Bougeries, Collonge-Bellerive or Veyrier are served by narrow private lanes, with a gate, a tight bend, a steep slope or a gravel drive that will not take a loaded lorry. A twenty-tonne vehicle on a freshly laid gravel drive is guaranteed damage — and it would be at our expense, so we check beforehand.

The usual solution when the lorry cannot get close is either long carrying distances or a shuttle: a smaller vehicle ferries between the house and the lorry parked further away. It is slower and it changes the quote, but it is the only clean way to proceed. We would rather measure that during the visit than discover it with a lorry stuck on a bend.

Two details that each cost an hour when forgotten: the height of the gate or a low branch over the drive, and a keypad or remote control the team does not have access to. We note them when quoting.

Cleaning before handover, whether to a landlord or a buyer

A villa is handed over in two very different contexts and the logic differs. In a tenancy there is a check-out inspection with a régie — the managing agent acting for the landlord — and a rental deposit at stake. In a sale there is a handover to the buyer, generally framed by the deed, with an obligation to leave the property clear of all furniture.

In both cases the same mechanical rule applies: cleaning can only be done properly on an empty property. On a villa that weighs more than on a flat, because the glazed areas are larger, there are technical spaces — laundry, pool plant room, boiler room — and the exterior forms part of the handover: terrace, drive, garage.

The responsibility argument applies here too and is even stronger. On a villa the risk of damage during the move is higher: parquet, wooden staircases, natural stone, glazed doors. With two separate providers a scratch becomes a debate. With one party responsible for both the removal and the cleaning, it is settled on the spot.

On timing, we recommend allowing a buffer day between the move and the handover rather than doing both in one day. On a villa the chance of some detail taking three extra hours is real, and a day of margin costs less than a late handover.

How to read a villa removal quote

Gaps between villa quotes are often more than a thousand francs, and they almost never come from the hourly rate. They come from scope.

Five questions are enough to put three quotes on the same footing. Does the volume allowed for cover the garage, cellar, loft and outbuildings, or only the living rooms? Are packing materials supplied and taken back? Are dismantling and reassembly of bulky furniture included, a ten-seat dining table and a solid wardrobe among them? Are particular items — piano, artwork, wine cellar, safe — named explicitly? And has access been checked on site: lane width, gate, slope, surface type?

A sixth point is worth asking and the answer is revealing: what happens if real volume exceeds the estimate on the day? A quote produced after a visit should hold. A quote produced over the phone generally ends with an adjustment you discover once your furniture is already in the lorry.

Finally, ask for the professional liability insurance certificate. That is not a formality: on a villa, the value of the furniture being moved and the sensitivity of the floors make it a directly financial question.

What a villa holds beyond the living rooms

Containers of flammable or toxic products do not travel with furniture. We identify them during the visit and tell you which must be emptied, used up or taken to a collection point.