Moving home still tops the stress level chart – beating having a baby, marriage and job interviews

52% of the nation feel moving home is one of the most stressful life events and with the additional requirements of social distancing and other pandemic based procedures, it’s just got a whole lot more stressful. When it comes to moving, 28% find it more stressful than having a baby, getting married, going to job interviews, doing a driving test. It also beats waiting for what was the biggest elephant in the room to leave until COVID-19 arrived – Brexit.

One of the reasons for this, according to new research by the home setup service Just Move In is, 44% of movers spend up to three hours just swapping their utilities over.

Just Move In reduces the stress and hassle of the home moving process by recommending the best essential services and doing the leg work for you. Freeing you up to focus on the important parts of moving, like remembering to take the kids, face masks and hand sanitiser with you.

The latest survey of home movers by Just Move In found that 52% of those asked ranked moving home at an eight or above on a scale of one to 10 when asked how stressful they found moving – with 10 being the most stressful.

When looking at the most stressful aspects of moving home itself, 49% of people found packing the most stressful part, followed by transferring your services and updating existing utility providers (27%).

With everything that needs organising for a smooth and successful home move, it comes as no surprise that transferring services and utilities ranks so highly, with 44% of movers spending over 30 minutes on the phone to each supplier. With council tax, water and sewerage, gas and electricity, TV and broadband, phone and insurance as a minimum, that’s more than three hours spent on the phone. Time that could be spent on other things – like binge watching Netflix.

On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the most stressful, how stressful was moving home?
How stressful
% of respondents
1
1%
2
2%
3
4%
4
4%
5
8%
6
10%
7
18%
8
27%
9
13%
10
12%
Rank the following on which you have found the most stressful
Life Event
% of times ranked 1st
Moving home
28%
Job Interview
21%
Driving Test
20%
Having a baby
16%
Getting Married
11%
Waiting for Brexit
5%
Thinking about moving to a new home, what was it that you found most stressful?
Task/activity
% of respondents
Packing
49%
Setting up new services (e.g. internet) in my new home and updating my address with current utility providers
27%
Organising a removal service
10%
Updating friends and family with my new address
1%
Other
13%
How much time would you typically spend calling your council, water and sewerage provider, gas and electricity provider, TV and broadband provider, phone provider and insurance providers?
Time taken
% of respondents
Less than 10 mins
8%
Between 10 and 30 mins
34%
Over 30 mins
44%
N/A as I did this online
14%

Properganda PR

National and local media coverage for property businesses. Journo quotes delivered in minutes.

You May Also Enjoy

Breaking News

Planning reform alone will not fix the UK’s housing crisis

Propertymark has published a new position paper, Meeting UK house demand, moving beyond the planning system, warning that focusing solely on reforming the planning system will not deliver the number of homes the UK urgently needs. While planning reform is frequently cited as the primary solution to the housing shortage, Propertymark’s analysis shows that changes…
Read More
Breaking News

One in three mortgage hunting FTBs has at least 25% deposit

While higher loan-to-value (LTV) mortgages dominate first-time buyer demand a significant minority are seeking higher deposit deals, fresh data from Moneyfactscompare.co.uk can reveal. Of those looking for fixed term deals on moneyfactscompare.co.uk: Almost one in three (30%) first-time buyers are opting for 90% LTV mortgages, and a further 12% are looking at 95% LTV options. This…
Read More
how to present your property for sale
Breaking News

Nationwide House Price Index for January 2026 – Industry Reaction

Nationwide House Price Index for January 2026. The latest index shows that: House prices increased by 0.3% between December 2025 and January 2026. This reversed the -0.4% monthly decline seen between November and December of last year. Annual growth sat at 1% in January 2026, with this annual rate of growth increasing from 0.6% in…
Read More
Breaking News

House price growth edges higher in January

Slight rise in annual house price growth to 1.0% House prices were up 0.3% month on month Continued improvement in affordability helped drive first-time buyer activity in 2025 Headlines Jan-26 Dec-25 Monthly Index* 544.9 543.4 Monthly Change* 0.3% -0.4% Annual Change 1.0% 0.6% Average Price (not seasonally adjusted) £270,873 £271,068 * Seasonally adjusted figure (note…
Read More
Breaking News

Housebuilding sector shows early signs of recovery

The latest Barclays Business Prosperity Index report1 reveals that despite affordability pressures, regulatory challenges and financial caution, four in five businesses (83 per cent) operating in housebuilding and its supply chains remain confident about their outlook for the year ahead. Barclays’ anonymised client data from around 70,000 UK businesses, combined with research from 500 industry…
Read More
Rightmove logo
Breaking News

Rightmove launches major updates to its agent qualification CELA

Rightmove’s Level 3 Certificate for Estate and Letting Agents (CELA) will include a new module on Renters’ Rights from April, helping agents to get Renters’ Rights ready before May The Level 3 Certificate for Estate and Letting Agents is included as standard within all Rightmove memberships, with only a fee to the exam board to…
Read More