Market Competition Keeps Homes Insurance Prices In Check

• Home insurance prices rise just 2.1% in a year
• The average buildings and contents policy now stands at £136
  

Average bills for home insurance are up just 2.1% in a year, with a competitive marketplace keeping roughly in line with the UK’s headline inflation rate, analysis from data analytics expert Consumer Intelligence shows.

Over the longer term, average premiums have fallen 1% since February 2014, when Consumer Intelligence first started collecting data. And despite the 2.1% uptick in premiums over the last 12 months, prices have yet to trend higher than the first recording five-and-a half years ago.

Across the market, the average home insurance premium sits at £136. For the over-50s age cohort, premiums increased by a marginally steeper rate of 2.7% over the same period, averaging £143 per premium; whereas price rises for the under-50s were limited to just 1.5% (£129).

Regionally, Londoners continue to pay a hefty premium for their home insurance, ranking streets ahead of any other UK region. At £187 for an average buildings and contents policy, households in London now pay almost 60% more for their insurance than the cheapest region, the North East (£119). Even the South East (£140), London’s nearest neighbour both in terms of geography and price, is still a third cheaper than the UK capital.

Wales (-0.3%) was the only region in the UK to see home insurance premiums fall in the last 12 months. However, the South East (4.1%) witnessed the biggest rise over the same period, with the Eastern region (3.4%) and the West Midlands (3%) following closely behind.

Victorian-era properties, erected before 1895, continue to carry the highest annual premiums in the market at £162. And insurance policies attached to houses built from the turn of the 20th century to just before the outbreak of the First World War (1895-1910) follow closely behind at £146.

Properties built between 1985 and 2000 are now the cheapest to secure home insurance against (£126), with those built after 2000 attracting premiums of £133.

Properties built between 1925 and 1940 have seen the highest increases to their premiums of any age group, at 2.9%, in the last 12 months.

“Home insurance is a very competitive marketplace, helping to keep overall pricing down,” says John Blevins, pricing expert at Consumer Intelligence.

“London unsurprisingly maintains its number one spot with some of the most expensive properties in the UK and the biggest urban area – with cities generally having a much higher crime rate.

“Regional pricing is based on localised claims experience – looking at general perils such as fire, accidental damage but also specific areas such as crime rates, weather events and subsidence,” says Blevins.

“And with subsidence claims levels reaching a peak this year, areas where the weather tends to be dryer – such as the South East – have seen higher rates of subsidence.”

Average premiums and price changes around Great Britain

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Ends

Notes to Editors
  ^{¹The cheapest premiums were calculated by comparing the prices offered for 2,100 people by all the major Price Comparison Sites and key direct insurers. The top 5 prices for each person were compared to the previous month’s top 5, then these variations averaged to produce the index.}

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Consumer Intelligence
Catherine Carey
PR & Communications Manager
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About Consumer Intelligence

Consumer Intelligence (CI) is a data analytics company that helps businesses execute great customer strategies. For 15 years the company has been benchmarking the insurance market and retail banks in the UK and beyond. The unique combination of benchmark data, consumer research and extensive experience has helped some of the world’s major brands focus on delivering better services to customers and improving their own business performance as a result. For more information, visit the website www.consumerintelligence.com