This survey reveals that home insurance has fallen slightly, and given that house prices, food, fuel, utility bills and National Insurance are all heading upwards, that is remarkable. IE is predicting that the extra costs of rebuilding and making repairs to properties this winter, which will rise by around 10%, will prompt a re-think next Spring. Every tradesperson is facing a huge hike in fuel, wages, employers NI, plus other costs like extra tax on annual dividends taken in place of monthly wages. Then there’s the daily traffic jams that cause journey times to increase by about 50%. So the net result will be increasing quotes and estimates on every building job.
Insurance premiums for UK homeowners have fallen 5.6% in the last 12 months and 6.4% since their June 2020 peak thanks to COVID-19, analysis from data analytics expert Consumer Intelligence shows. However, the company expects premiums to begin to rise as the country begins to fully reopen, but not as much as some may expect.
“The home market is already a very competitive space which keeps premium increases largely at bay,” says Harriet Devonald, product manager at Consumer Intelligence.
Age differences
Younger residents continue to fork out slightly more for their home insurance, but the gap between our two age groups continues to shrink. An under-50s homeowner typically hands over £151 for an annual buildings and contents policy, while the over-50s now pay £134 for similar insurance.
Into the regions
London (£202) continues to dominate the list of locations where residents pay the most for their home insurance. The South East (£154) and Yorkshire and the Humber (£150) are the only two other regions where an annual policy is more than the national average of £144.
The North East (£113) remains the cheapest region, with the East Midlands (£124) and the South West (£130) following closely behind.
Across-the-board reductions continue in all our regions. The biggest yearly falls were in Yorkshire and the Humber (-7.9%)
and the South East (-6.8%). Whereas homeowners in Wales (-3.2%) and the East Midlands (-3.7%) saw the smallest reductions to their home insurance. When looked at over a shorter time frame, premiums are still falling fast in some regions – Yorkshire and the Humber (-3.6%), the West Midlands (-2.9%) and the North West (-2.6%) all saw large declines in the last three months.
Property age
Older homes continue to attract higher insurance premiums, reflecting the higher cost of claims made by their owners – with roofing, plumbing, and wiring in these properties more likely to develop faults, and with replacement materials expensive to source.
Homes built in the 19th century, our oldest segment – Victorian era properties built between 1850 and 1895 – typically attract premiums of £169 for an annual policy. While properties erected this century are the cheapest to insure at £133.
Meanwhile, the segments with the biggest reductions to their premiums in the last 12 months have been to properties built between 1940 and 1955 (-7.4%) and for those built from 1910 and 1925 (-7.0%). Again, across-the-board reductions were seen in all our age segments.
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