A Hurstville apartment move vs an Oatley house move: two completely different jobs

St George Removals · 26 June 2026 · 6 min read

People picture a removal job as one thing: a truck, some boxes, a few strong backs. In St George that picture falls apart fast, because the district holds two completely different kinds of move, often a few minutes’ drive apart — and they have almost nothing in common except the truck.

The two St Georges

Walk around Hurstville and the skyline keeps climbing. Roughly seven in ten homes here are now units, and more towers are going up around Forest Road and the station. A few minutes south in Oatley, the picture flips: leafy streets, quarter-acre blocks, heritage and character homes on slopes running down to the Georges River, where only about a fifth of dwellings are units.

Between those poles, Kogarah and Rockdale are unit belts (around 60% units), while Penshurst and Mortdale keep their houses. And in Carlton and Allawah, the two realities sit on the same street. (Figures are indicative, 2021 Census basis — see the dwelling-mix spectrum on our home page.)

So the very first question we ask about any St George move isn’t “how far?” It’s “unit or house — at each end?” Here’s why it matters so much.

The unit move: it’s all about the building

A high-rise move is a logistics job, and the truck is almost the easy part. What makes or breaks the day is the building:

• The service lift. Most St George towers require a booked lift window, and many limit moves to certain hours. Your two-hour lift slot is the single thing most likely to blow out the job if it’s not arranged.
• The loading dock. Around Hurstville and Kogarah the kerb is tight and timed, so you load from the building’s dock — and you need to know the dock height, clearance and where the truck waits.
• Strata notice. Many buildings want written notice, sometimes a bond or proof of insurance, before they’ll let a move happen.

Get those three sorted ahead of time and a unit move is smooth. Discover them on the day and you’re stuck at the door. We confirm the lift size, the dock and the building’s rules before move day, every time.

The house move: it’s all about the carry

A freestanding-home move barely touches a lift. The whole job is the distance and the obstacles between the truck and your lounge:

• The truck position. Can it back into the driveway, or does it park on the street? On a steep Oatley or split-level Sans Souci block, that one decision shapes everything.
• The stairs and side access. Federation homes around Penshurst and Oatley often have front stairs and a narrow path squeezed past the house to the back rooms.
• The garden gate. A wardrobe may need to turn on its side to clear it. We plan for it.
• The boxes. A bigger home packs into far more cartons than anyone guesses — so we size the truck to the bedrooms and the garage, not to a hopeful guess.

No council in St George sells a casual one-day permit for this, so the plan is a legal kerb spot close to the door and good timing. (More on the council quirk in our guide to the Georges River vs Bayside boundary.)

Same district, same rates, different plan

Here’s the part people get wrong: a unit move isn’t automatically dearer than a house move, or vice versa. Our online-quote rates are the same per crew size either way. What moves the total is time, and time comes from access — a long lift wait and a steep driveway can each add an hour. That’s why we plan the access first and quote the real job, not an average.

So, which move is yours?

If you’re moving within St George, there’s a good chance one end is a unit and the other is a house — the classic upgrade or downsizing move. Our apartment-vs-house move planner lets you pick what you’re moving from and to, and shows the genuinely different plan for each end. Or just send us both addresses and we’ll tell you exactly how we’d handle it.

Common questions

Why is a unit move different from a house move?

A unit move lives or dies on the building: a booked service lift, a loading dock shared with every tenant, and strata or building-manager notice. A house move is about the carry — backing the truck in, clearing front and internal stairs, squeezing past the house on side access, and getting through a garden gate. They need different planning, crew and timing.

Which St George suburbs are unit-heavy and which are house-heavy?

Hurstville (around 70% units), Kogarah and Rockdale (around 60%) are the unit belt. Oatley (around 22% units), Penshurst and Mortdale (around a third) are the house pockets. Carlton and Allawah sit in between, roughly half and half, often on the same street. Figures are indicative, 2021 Census basis.

Do you charge more for an apartment move or a house move?

Our online-quote rates are the same per crew size either way — $200/hour for two movers and a truck, $250 for three, $400 for a larger crew with two trucks. What changes the total is the time the job takes, and that depends on the access: a long lift wait or a steep Oatley driveway both add time. We give a clear indicative quote up front for your specific move.